Digital Prank

Microsoft yesterday announced a new software that delivers popular Internet Services including Twitter, Facebook to cheap basic phones in developing countries. This will bring the people of the world closer by allowing the users to connect with even people from shanty towns including who starred in the Oscar flick Slumdog Millionaire. OneApp complements Microsoft’s low-budget business strategy by bringing mobile apps and services to feature phones in emerging markets. OneApp will be rolled out in South Africa first followed by India, China and other developing countries where people use low-cost feature phones instead of powerful smartphones.

Microsoft OneApp is nothing but a new software solution that will allow low-cost feature phones to run mobile apps like Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger, and other popular applications and games. The size of the software is just 150KB and can be downloaded and installed onto the handset using computer or through GPRS Internet. OneApp is designed in such a way that it uses less resource and network use in order to keep data access charges low. Amit Mital, corporate vice president of Startup Business Accelerator at Microsoft, said

"We believe mobile technology plays a pivotal role in addressing people’s everyday needs and creating new opportunities for local industry to grow. We designed OneApp from the ground up on feature phones with limited memory and processing capabilities. Microsoft OneApp will be able to help people do things they couldn’t do before with their feature phone, anything from paying bills to helping diagnose health issues or just staying connected with friends and family”

Some of the key technical features of OneApp are,

• OneApp’s very minimal on-phone footprint of just 150 KB (whereas most downloaded mobile apps are measured in terms of MB) makes installing it quick and easy.
• OneApp will launch only the parts of a mobile app that you want to use; that cuts down on additional installation time and the need to store all of your mobile apps on your phone.
• OneApp uses data networks very efficiently to help lower data access charges, which can really create substantial savings for the customer.
• OneApp includes cloud services that can help shift processing and storage weight from the phone to the Internet, which improves overall performance.

Read the official release at Microsoft blog which describes more about OneApp. I cannot wait to see that.