FusionOne Backup Prevents Content Loss

By Brian Dolan Losing or breaking a mobile phone is upsetting, especially for those that consider their handsets to be a next-generation photo album. More than two years ago FusionOne launched a backup service for mobile shutterbugs and now it’s offering an updated version that prevents the loss of expensive mobile content, such as games, short videos, ringtones and full-track songs. Called MightyBackup 3.0, this BREW-based application provides restorative protection for both user-generated and licensed mobile content. “Now users are investing a lot of money in mobile content and they want that to follow them as well,” said FusionOne’s President and CEO Rick Onyun. “‘Follow’ is the key word. We’re not physically storing and restoring this content. We back up the metadata and are able to tell users: ‘Here’s all the stuff you used to own.’” According to Onyun, the company doesn’t set the policy for repurchasing licensed content, that’s up to the content owners. “It usually falls into three categories: The user needs to repurchase the content in full, the user gets a discount or the content owner lets the user get the content back for free.” Onyun admits that continually re-buying content would prove irritating, but repurchasing for a nominal fee, especially to pay for the porting service should sit well with consumers, he says. Licensed content typically falls into two categories: one-time purchases and subscription purchases. MightyBackup 3.0 allows users to regain access to both. Content owners are typically more interested in making money on the one-time purchases, while carriers want to maintain the subscriptions users lose when they switch handsets. Using BREW makes MightyBackup 3.0 easier for users to find and register, Onyun says. Users can even log onto a website and view the content of their phone from a PC. When a user gets a new phone, they need to download the backup service again and supply their phone number and pin code to get access to their list of missing content. From that list, users can pick and choose which content to restore while viewing the prices. FusionOne has deals with the content owners so the user can repurchase and restore all in one place.