Synchronica's Mobile Manager Suite Among First with Automated Device Management and Firmware Update for Windows Mobile 5.0

Slashes Customer-Care Costs for Mobile Operators and Device Manufacturers

GSM 3G MEG Show, Dubai, Stand 1, September 2, 2007. - Synchronica plc, international provider of robust mobile synchronization and device management solutions, today announced it has added full support for device management and firmware updates of Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 devices to the Synchronica Mobile Manager Suite platform.

Using the industry standard OMA DM, Synchronica's Mobile Manager Suite can now remotely diagnose and repair configuration issues in Windows Mobile 5.0 devices or deliver a firmware update over the air (FOTA).

Thanks to OMA DM support in Windows Mobile 5.0, Mobile Manager Suite uses the built-in OMA DM / FOTA client on the device. Synchronica has also adapted Mobile Manager Suite to support Microsoft's extensions to the OMA DM industry standard, providing mobile operators and device manufacturers with a powerful tool for slashing the costs associated with support of Windows Mobile 5.0 devices.

As consumer adoption of Windows Mobile 5.0 devices and other smartphones continues to rise, so too do the associated customer-care costs. According to a new report from ABI Research, smartphones will capture almost 15 percent of the global mobile market this year - that's some 123 million devices.

The downside is that smartphones are more complex to configure and more likely to have firmware defects than older feature phones. To put this in context, data from Strategy Analytics shows that in 2004, the mobile industry suffered additional costs of USD 685 million caused by device recalls due to firmware defects on the latest generation of mobile devices.

Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of Synchronica, comments: "As Windows Mobile 5.0 devices become increasingly popular, operators and device manufacturers can rely on our Mobile Manager Suite automated lifecycle management product to keep customer-care costs to a minimum by ironing out any configuration problems - and updating firmware OTA. These companies also have the choice of offering their customers a self-care facility with Mobile Manager Suite which can reduce customer-care costs still further. One of our device manufacturer customers has already done this, having installed Mobile Manager Suite and partially replaced its manual callcenter with an automated hotline."

Aimed at mobile operators and device manufacturers requiring a fully automated lifecycle management product, Mobile Manager Suite enables them to build fully automated self-care portals. These automated hotlines can diagnose the device, ask the user for confirmation, and automatically correct configuration issues or apply a patch to the firmware.

The business logic and on-device user interaction is implemented in Synchronica's powerful server-side, XML-based scripting language Sydemas, making Mobile Manager Suite an extremely flexible solution which can be easily adapted for any device diagnosis and repair scenario.

Mobile Manager Suite for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices has been rigorously tested in recent OMA Test Fests, as well as with prototypes from major Windows Mobile handset manufacturers. It provides carrier-grade scalability, has been proven in a live installation with a European device manufacturer, and runs on any J2EE-compliant application server, RDBMS, Solaris or Linux.

About Synchronica

Synchronica plc develops and markets synchronization and device management solutions for mobile operators, device manufacturers, and enterprises. Its product portfolio ranges from data synchronization (DS) to device management (DM), and firmware updates over the air (FOTA). Products include the mobile device management product set Mobile Manager Suite and the push email and synchronization solution Mobile Gateway. Headquartered in the U.K., with a development center in Germany and presences in the USA, Hong Kong, and Dubai. Synchronica plc is a public company traded on the AIM list of the London Stock Exchange (SYNC.LN). More information is available at www.synchronica.com

For more information, please contact:

Nicole Meissner
Chief Marketing Officer
Tel.: +44 1892 552 780
Mobile: +44 7977 256 412
Fax: +44 1892 552 721
nicole.meissner@synchronica.com