Mobile Distillery Shortens Time-to-Market of Mobile Java Applications across more than 200 Handsets

Mobile Distillery Announces the Launch of Celsius - Capable of Porting and Generating Mobile Java Applications Across 200 Handsets in a Few Clicks

News by GamesIndustry.biz Contributor

Published on Feb. 14, 2005

Solution to be Showcased at 3GSM WorldCongress 2005, 14-17, February 2005, Telecom Valley Gallery (in front of the Palais des Festivals), Cannes, France

3GSM WorldCongress, Cannes, 14 February, 2005 - Mobile Distillery has announced the launch of Celsius, a solution which enables the porting and production of mobile Java applications across more than 200 currently available mobile phones. Targeted at game and mobile application developers, mobile marketing agencies and mobile Java engineering companies, this unique solution facilitates and optimises Java development processes, significantly reducing porting time, costs and complexity.

Already used in the production of five mobile games, Celsius facilitates a reduction up to 80 per cent in porting time and generating executable files across more than 200 handsets. This process can be carried out in several different languages.

"Celsius is perfectly in tune with the current trend towards simplifying mobile content development," says Eric Lemaréchal, co-founder and associate director of Mobile Distillery. "Both the quantity of mobile phones and the number of features available are increasing exponentially, which makes mobile content development more complex and encourages constant updating of mobile Java applications onto new platforms."

"Celsius reduces complexity because it only requires the management of a single source code," he adds. "At the same time, demand for content is exploding and available development time becoming shorter. This is the way the mobile gaming market is growing worldwide.

"According to IDC, this market should rise to nearly €1.8 billion annually by 2008 and, according to ARC Group, involve more than 2.5 billion people. Celsius radically accelerates the application availability cycle, reducing the traditional porting time up to 80%.

"As the success of mobile content is largely determined by its availability on the main handsets currently in use, the Java language and its porting across all existing handsets have to be considered as development drivers for mobile applications. Thanks to its 200 handsets database, Celsius offers a pragmatic response to current market needs", believes Eric Lemaréchal.

Celsius from Mobile Distillery makes the porting of mobile Java applications extremely efficient by:

Integrating specific features within the Java source code, enabling future optimisation.

Offering a handset database (currently with more than 200 references) containing all relevant information relating to features and bugs for each handset type. Constantly updated, this database supports the development of mobile Java applications thanks to an Optimiser Suite, regardless of the screen size or the specific features of the handset.

Offering sprites, sound, font and keyboard optimisation features enabling quasi-automatic version management, depending on the performance of each mobile phone type addressed.

Integrating an Engine and a Packager, which create executable files corresponding to each mobile phone type. The Generator function also integrates the naming rules specific to each mobile phone.

Celsius offers a broad range of benefits including:

Accelerated time-to-market - The crucial development steps of mobile Java applications (optimisation depending on the performance of each handset type addressed, porting across all the handsets available, etc.) are greatly simplified and enhanced. With Celsius, porting takes just a few hours rather than the two-to-four weeks work currently typical.

Efficient source code management - Version or language management and support are radically simplified: all the correct versions are now generated by one single version of the source code.

Reduced modifications and corrections cycle - Use of one single source code and quasi-automatic version production drastically simplifies modification and bug correction management.

Quick availability of mobile Java applications across future handsets - The Engine optimises and ports, in a few clicks, every mobile application across all the latest available handsets and those scheduled for launch.

Celsius has accelerated the development of Ancestral Bird, the latest production from Kaolink.

Co-developed with Kaolink, Celsius' solution has been put in production by this leading developer of mobile video games.

The latest mobile game from the company, Ancestral Bird, is the first mobile game funded by CNC and Media Plus Europe. It was fully developed in just two and a half months, adapted in 15 days and generated in one hour across 180 mobile phones, in six different languages. Ancestral Bird's time-to-market has been reduced by more than 50 per cent thanks to Celsius with the development period reduced from six and a half months to three months.

Sprite and sound optimisation functions have helped to bring higher quality mobile content to market, regardless of the mobile phone type. The Engine application produced the executable files corresponding with each mobile phone type in less than an hour.

"Quality, a rapid development cycle and the ability to address more than 180 different mobile phones are the three success factors for Kaolink today," says Carole Faure, ceo and co-founder of Kaolink. "Mobile Distillery helps us in each of these key areas. We are very pleased with the fast adoption of Mobile Distillery technology internally, allowing our developers to focus on our core business of developing the game itself, and avoiding hassles with porting and delivery."

Availability

Currently being beta-tested, Celsius technology will be available in the late Summer of 2005.

"We are very impressed every day by the content of new mobile applications, from entertainment to business, marketing and education", declares Vincent Berge, co-founder and associate director of Mobile Distillery. "Thanks to invaluable feedback from experienced beta-testers, we are currently developing according to new market demands: an ASP offer to facilitate access to our solutions and updates, and the integration of new functionality, including http connections and Doja and Brew bridges."

-ends-

Notes to Editor

About Mobile Distillery

Specialising in mobile Java technologies, especially J2ME, Mobile Distillery develops and sells unique solutions enabling, in just a few clicks, the optimisation and porting of mobile Java applications across more than 200 Java handsets. These solutions facilitate and optimise development processes, significantly reduce porting cycles and costs, and accelerate the time-to-market of mobile Java applications. Mobile Distillery's customers include game and mobile application developers, mobile marketing agencies and mobile Java engineering companies.

For more information, please do not hesitate to visit: www.mobiledistillery.com, or contact:

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