Remember SoonR, the company that has come-up with ways to access your desktop from your mobile phone?
Well, June 21 is turning out to be a big day for them. They have just launched their Mac client (beta of course,) which means they are going to get some good visibility in the geek circles. The program leverages the awesome “Spotlight” feature of Mac OS-X.
But that’s trivial news, compared to this other bit of information.
SoonR has signed a deal with Tata Indicom, one of the largest and fastest growing telecom operators in India. The company also owns a CDMA-based mobile network. Given that India, with about 100 million mobile subscribers, is one of the fastest growing mobile markets, this simply will result in a sharp uptick in the number of users of this service.
PS: Apparently, Tata Indicom/VSNL folks had read about SoonR here on GigaOM. That’s pretty cool.
It was just question of time. SoonR or latR…
There’s an article in the wsj that states how value added mobile services are floundering due to a lack of demand(and a lack of interest) from mobile users.
As for tata indicom signing up soonr, I’m a bit skeptical. tata indicom uses the cdma network which is not terribly popular among urbanites. They are doing practically no advertising(when compared to their other cdma competitor and numerous gsm competitors), they sold their stake in idea cellular(gsm) to the birlas yesterday and from what I’ve observed, people who use the tata cdma handsets do not have a gnawing need to access their desktops. Soonr might have better success if it was integrated with hutch business or airtel mobile corporate. My 2 cents.
That WSJ article was US market specific. Elsewhere in the world, these services are experiencing various degrees of success. In some Asian markets, they are through the roof.
I agree that there are sooooo many mobile users in India. But what percentage of them own or have access to computers?
After all, I can only use soonr IF I have a desktop in the first place, no?
I hate when this happens… where in the heck can i get the mac os x version? i’m on the site, and it only allows me to download a windows version…
tx!
First, I am with SoonR. It’s great to see you staying on top of developments at SoonR.
I’d like to encourage Mac Users to send me an email song@soonr.com. We will let you know when the Mac OS version is publicly available. Also, please check back at our website as it’ll be there as soon it’s released for general availability. It’s not real far away… get out your watch, not your calendar.
Not many users can keep their PC turned on and online due to recurring power outage and electricity is expensive also. So, I don’t see much usage of SoonR service except by business users.
I want to tell SoonR that my friend Rashida, who just moved back to India and who was the person that introduced me to your service, and myself both LOVE SoonR! To address Jesse’s question, “After all, I can only use soonr IF I have a desktop in the first place, no?”…
NO. My desktop was toast and in pieces, my laptop stayed with my last job, and I had only a cell phone to communicate with. Rashida “shared” or rather allowed me access to certain folders she had with SoonR, and suddenly I had everthing I needed from her right there on my phone! There are so many uses for this. Thought you should know. Thanks SoonR!
Thanks for the great testimonial!
First let me tell the folks on this forum that the Mac version of SoonR is now available for download on our website. Please goto http://www.soonr.com/landing/mac/mac.htm
As for different usage models for SoonR, we will soon offer the ability to make information persistent even when the computer is shut down. This will allow people who have shared PCs to access their content from Internet Cafes or phones.
This will also act as an effective backup for your files and PC. When we introduce our paid service offerings, one of the primary features will be the “virtualization” of the content and applications on your desktop. Many of the issues brought up here will be resolved for people who do not leave their PCs connected.
Also, note that SoonR allows you to integrate and share multiple computers. Work & Home are the most common cases, but when you also get shares from friends and family, you get the richeness of varied content from any number of computers, all available from your phone (or nay PC browser).
SoonR’s not so big day.
Ugly installation and perpetual “connecting” message. Not cool!
Reas my experience here – http://www.browngeek.com/?p=152