Azuki Systems Unveils Industry's First Comprehensive Platform for Interactive Mobile Media Services.Company Changes Name from Peermeta; Enters Customer Trials ACTON, Mass. -- Azuki Systems, Inc., an innovator in the interactive mobile media technology market, today launched the industry's first comprehensive interactive mobile media services platform. The Azuki MashMedia platform provides everything content publishers and mobile operators need to create, differentiate, and monetize highly personal, interactive rich media services. The market for mobile media services is expected to grow from $20 billion in 2007 to $64 billion in 2012.1 Within this market, interactive mobile media services are an exciting new class of services that enable consumers to efficiently discover, experience, interact with, and share the information and entertainment media they like with friends and colleagues. Azuki, known originally as Peermeta, has been in stealth mode Taking place in secret. It often refers to the position that startup companies take when developing a product they feel will be very competitive in the marketplace. They swear everyone to secrecy and keep a very low profile until they are ready to launch. since it was founded by serial entrepreneur Serial entrepreneur Business person that successfully starts (does not kill) a number of different businesses. Cheng Wu Cheng Wu (程武; b. 201) was an officer under the Cao Wei of the Three Kingdoms period in China. Cheng Wu was the son of Cheng Yu. Cheng Wu served under Xiahou Mao when fighting against the army under Shu, then having Xiahou Mao surround and then attack Zhao Yun as to , who has proven experience in solving difficult industry problems. Wu is best known as the founder of three highly successful startups - ArrowPoint (acquired by Cisco for $5.7 billion), Arris ar·ris n. pl. arris or ar·ris·es The sharp edge or ridge formed by two surfaces meeting at an angle, as in a molding. [Alteration of Old French areste, fishbone, spine Networks (acquired by Cascade Communications Cascade Communications was a Westford, Massachusetts based manufacturer of communications equipment. Founding Cascade was founded by Desh Deshpande in 1990, and was led by CEO Dan Smith. Product Cascade made a compact Frame Relay system. for $217 million) and Acopia (acquired by F5 Networks for $210 million). Wu now turns his attention to the delivery of media to mainstream mobile users. Since the company first announced its $6.6 million funding last fall, industry observers have speculated widely about the company's product plans. That speculation ended today with Azuki's unveiling of its flagship platform and the announcement that it is in customer trials. "The key to building a successful company is to start by identifying a strong need or want in the market," stated Wu. "In the case of Azuki, we saw a strong need among content publishers to quickly optimize their content and the way users consume mobile services. We also saw an opportunity for mobile operators to attract new customers by leveraging service personalization and interactivity to promote viral service expansion. And, among users, we found a strong desire to have glanceable, interactive content that is personalized and easy to use." Using the Azuki MashMedia Platform, content publishers and mobile operators can quickly build new services that optimize content for mobile devices by: * Enabling real time mashup of contextual media (video, audio, photos, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) A syndication format that was developed by Netscape in 1999 and became very popular for aggregating updates to blogs and the news sites. RSS has also stood for "Rich Site Summary" and "RDF Site Summary. ), advertising and social media to ensure greater relevancy and deeper levels of engagement for consumers; * Splitting rich media into "snackable," bite-size chunks that provide simplified navigation and purposed forms of media for mobile; * Providing for dynamic adaptation of personalized content based on real time device and user contexts; * Building interactivity and support for socialization socialization /so·cial·iza·tion/ (so?shal-i-za´shun) the process by which society integrates the individual and the individual learns to behave in socially acceptable ways. so·cial·i·za·tion n. around content to drive viral service expansion; * Adapting rich media for the native browser and media player of any handset, enabling the broadest reach to mobile audiences; * Enabling a range of service monetization options, including advertising, revenue sharing revenue sharing Funding arrangement in which one government unit grants a portion of its tax income to another government unit. For example, provinces or states may share revenue with local governments, or national governments may share revenue with provinces or states. , and subscriptions; and * Speeding time to market, lowering development cost and easing further service refinements. "Azuki has really done a great job building an end-to-end solution (jargon) end-to-end solution - (E2ES) A term that suggests that the supplier of an application program or system will provide all the hardware and/or software components and resouces to meet the customer's requirement and no other supplier need be involved. Compare: turn-key solution. that incorporates everything a content publisher like WheelsTV needs in order to quickly create and monetize new services for the mobile market," said Jim Barisano, chairman and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Automotive Networks Corporation, creators of Wheels TV, the leading provider of original programming and user-generated content for the automotive industry. "When a mobile user wants to see, learn and share everything about the latest Mustang, BMW BMW in full Bayerische Motoren Werke AG German automaker. Founded as an aircraft engine manufacturer in 1916, the company assumed the name Bayerische Motoren Werke and became known for its high-speed motorcycles in the 1920s. or Audi, the interface is easy to use, and they are engaged on our site for significantly longer." "By taking a platform approach to the problem, Azuki is striving to become the de facto [Latin, In fact.] In fact, in deed, actually. This phrase is used to characterize an officer, a government, a past action, or a state of affairs that must be accepted for all practical purposes, but is illegal or illegitimate. infrastructure for what Yankee Group believes will become an extremely important market for interactive mobile media services," said Brian Kotlyar, analyst at Yankee Group. "With a unique combination of social networking, rich media, and the infrastructure needed to make mobile media services work well for both consumers and service providers, Azuki has taken an intriguing approach to addressing the issues and limitations of existing mobile media services that merits closer watching." Azuki President and CEO, Jim Ricotta ri·cot·ta n. 1. A soft Italian cheese that resembles cottage cheese. 2. A similar soft cheese made in the United States. , who previously led both SightPath (acquired by Cisco for $800 million) and DataPower (acquired by IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) for $100 million), indicated that customer trials would continue through the summer, with expanded trials starting in the fall. "As we work together with content providers to commercialize interactive mobile media services, we're taking their feedback and refining our initial trials," said Ricotta. "Our MashMedia Platform is available as a complete turnkey solution or offered as enabling middleware to complement existing mobile services such as WAP (1) (Wireless Access Point) See access point. (2) (Wireless Application Protocol) A standard for providing cellular phones, pagers and other handheld devices with secure access to e-mail and text-based Web pages. portals, with its Web-based/SOA API. This allows our customers the most flexible options to best serve their mobile strategy." About Azuki Systems Azuki Systems provides the industry's first comprehensive interactive mobile media services platform. Azuki enables content publishers and mobile operators to create, differentiate and monetize rich media services for mobile audiences. The Azuki platform provides everything needed to establish new revenue streams through the delivery of highly interactive and personalized mobile-content and social-networking services. Based in Acton, Mass., Azuki is led by an executive team that has built some of the communications industry's most successful companies, including ArrowPoint, SightPath, Arris Networks, Acopia Networks and DataPower. For additional information, please visit www.azukisystems.com or call +1-978-844-5100. 1 Juniper Research, January 2008, "Mobile Entertainment Markets Opportunities and Forecasts 2007 - 2012." |
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