Reply launches the GAIA Mobile|Living|Framework for Mobile Content Delivery

06 July 2006

GAIA Mobile|Living|Framework is the new platform launched by Reply in these past days as part of the Mobility and Multimedia offering, an area for which companies are discovering a renewed interest. Specifically, GAIA is a flexible, scalable and economic framework that allows the distribution of contents and services on different mobile devices.

With GAIA Mobile|Living|Framework it is possible to extract data from any structured source, aggregate them according to the logic required by the type of service and make them available in a homogeneous way on any channel and mobile device. In addition, the framework optimizes the visualization and navigation of content to render it ergonomic compared to the characteristics of the various devices used.

From a technological point of view, the services allowed by GAIA are based on the synchronous interaction, through a WAP browser and XHTML, and on the asynchronous interaction, through SMS, MMS, WAP Push. GAIA is based on an open architecture that allows for it to evolve while always remaining compatible with the new terminals that are launched on the market and to support, in the future, channels other than mobile channels.

GAIA Mobile|Living|Framework is made up of four principal components:

• Device Detection – the framework recognises the terminal that requests access to the content or services and picks up the specific characteristics of that type of terminal from a database that is periodically updated;
• Content Adaptation – for multimedia content requests, the information is automatically sent with the necessary modifications according to the characteristics of the terminal (adaptation of the pages to the receiving device, creation and insertion of figures, graphics, etc.);
• Content Selection - through a collection of predefined content, the content that is most suitable to the terminal that initiated the request is selected. This is possible because the system maintains a record of the content previously requested from that specific type of terminal;
• Content Protection – the framework allows for content protection (text, audio, video, images) through the use of certain OMA Digital Right Management (DRM) class specifications.

Today, the Mobility and Multimedia themes are a reality more than ever. In fact, companies are discovering a renewed interest in the innovative solutions and services that can be introduced internally at both a process and product level. This trend is confirmed by the research Reply commissioned from NetConsulting on the evolution of Mobility and Multimedia solutions in Italy. The results show how today this market already represents 2% of the total IT market with growth rates of 17,3% in 2006; well above the average growth in the IT sector.

A deep knowledge of the business processes in the main vertical markets along with the proven technological experience in Mobility and Multimedia have allowed Reply to provide all the skills necessary for the realisation of its own mobile framework at a time in which the market is requesting these types of solutions.

"The society we live in is more and more connected to the Net and technology will be more and more present in our lives - states Tatiana Rizzante, Senior Partner of Reply - For this reason, we at Reply have always been dedicated to the development of value solutions and services, actually enabling the convergence and bringing down the barriers of knowledge and cost, aiming to let our customers better take advantage of the increasing availability of communication technologies and the opportunity to deal with digital multimedia contents".

Reply will release GAIA Mobile|Living|Framework in Open Source mode: the idea is to promote the development of a community - consisting of developers, content providers, device manufacturers and system integrators - that will not only encourage the development of solutions and its components, but also bring about an opinion exchange on the mobility themes so as to better meet and understand the needs of the customers.

For further information: www.gaiareply.eu