Xobni Mobile launched for BlackBerry smartphones
The contact-manager service Xobni has gone mobile with an application and plug-in for BlackBerry smartphones.
Xobni Mobile, launched on Wednesday, offers rich contact profiles in both a standalone application and within the native BlackBerry email client. The product also uses a new service from the company, Xobni One, which links information between Microsoft Outlook and the mobile versions of Xobni.
Wednesday's move is the first time that Xobni has been available in any other form than a plug-in for Outlook, where it adds search, threading and relevance functionality.
"Xobni Mobile automatically builds and maintains the fastest, most complete and smartest address book you've ever used," Xobni chief executive Jeff Bonforte said in a statement.
"The launch of Xobni Mobile on the BlackBerry platform is an important milestone for the company, and we have made this even more compelling by powering it with Xobni One. This new service is the foundation for all our future products and is the result of a significant investment from our product and engineering teams."
Xobni Mobile is compatible with BlackBerry Tour, Curve 8900, Bold and Storm smartphones. The company says it will launch versions for other mobile platforms, but has not yet named any.
According to the company, Xobni Mobile automatically creates rich profiles for anyone the user has ever communicated with, sorting contacts by relevance rather than by alphabetical order. Other functionality includes automatic phone number extraction and the saving of profiles to the server, in the event of the phone being lost.
The product also offers one-click access to contacts' Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, including photos. Users who want Xobni functionality integrated with Gmail, Hotmail, Lotus Notes and other email services can download the Xobni Mobile standalone app without Xobni One.
The standalone app costs $10 (£6.50) unless it is bought with the Xobni One service, in which case it involves a one-off fee of $7 and a recurring monthly fee of $4. A full year of Xobni Mobile on BlackBerry with Xobni One costs around $40.
In its statement, Xobni added that it would integrate its mobile product with its enterprise deployment offering later this year.