Trend: FOTA on the rise

Updating firmware over-the-air vendors have seen an uptick in units shipped during the last few quarters and expect to see a big year in 2007. Red Bend saw their units shipped ramp up to 80 million in Q4 2006, up from 43 million in the preceding quarter. The company expects the growth to continue with more than 100 million units shipped in Q1 of 2007. The growth is likely to continue for Red Bend, which has secured deals with nearly every major handset maker excluding Samsung and Motorola.

That said, the company expects to announce more customers before CTIA in March so it might have the market cornered soon enough. Another sign of Red Bend's continued success: HP's recent acquisition of Bitfone. Following the acquisition, which the companies announced just last week, Bitfone probably won't sell to its former investor, Motorola. 

Red Bend's latest offering, called vRapid Mobile can update, add and remove individual embedded software components on feature phones or smartphones.

For more on Red Bend:
- take a look at their site