Novatel positioning MiFi device as apps platform

March 25, 2010 — 10:47am ET | By Tammy Parker

Tools

LAS VEGAS--As part of a quest to establish its MiFi Intelligent Hotspot as a device-agnostic application platform, Novatel is working on a plan to help developers commercialize apps for the device.

The MiFi, which takes a 3G data signal and shares it with up to five devices via WiFi, was introduced little more than one year ago. Now the company is delivering apps through the MiFi, potentially benefitting mobile operators because the device eliminates platform dependency. Further, because apps reside and operate on the MiFi, downloads are not made to a user's smartphone or laptop. A microSD card slot on the MiFi can be used to store movies and media, which can then be shared with a smartphone or other WiFi device.

At the CTIA Wireless show here, Novatel demonstrated some widgets running on a MiFi device and shared with a laptop, though they could have been shared with a smartphone or other appropriate device with WiFi. For example, the Geosearch widget provided local weather downloaded from Accuweather, while the data usage widget tracked users' surfing and provided alerts when that user neared their allowed budget of bytes.

"This enables operators to not become dumb pipes," said Joe Schmelzer, Novatel's director of product management, noting the launch page for the MiFi app platform can be operator branded.

Novatel is working with internal and third-party application developers to create and distribute apps for the MiFi, but is not saying whether it plans to create an apps storefront. "We haven't announced anything, but I think it's safe to say in the paradigm we are commercializing applications, we are working with third-party developers and there is a need for a commercial path for those developers, which we will provide. We have a plan. We haven't announced it," said Schmelzer.

Also at CTIA, Novatel announced its NovaDrive cloud-based storage service, created by Nomadesk technology, a MiFi partner. NovaDrive, available to MiFi users as well as other mobile broadband users, enables a user to share, synchronize, encrypt, back up and store files to access from any laptop or Web-based mobile device. The company is providing a downloadable 30-day trial of the Internet-based service. Customers can sign up to receive a personal file server with unlimited capacity, and all the other NovaDrive features, for about $50 per year. A business file server, which provides unlimited storage and collaboration with an unlimited number of team members, goes for $15 per month.

Though Novatel has only launched the Web-based version of NovaDrive, the service also will work via the MiFi and on a standalone basis.

For more:
- see this release