Appello Uses Java Technologies to Power a Leading-Edge Mobile Navigation Solution

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Since its founding by an executive team with deep experience in mobile applications and services, Appello has become a leading provider of location-sensitive mobile services. Its technical platform gives a wide variety of mobile devices, Web clients, and in-vehicle equipment access to a broad range of services, including turn-by-turn navigation, dynamic traffic information, fleet management and asset tracking, location-sensitive yellow pages, speed camera warnings, and interactive city maps. The company offers these services as turnkey solutions to the telecom, automotive, logistics, and asset-tracking industries.

In January 2004 Appello launched its innovative WISEPILOT wireless navigation product for mobile phones, smart phones, and PDAs. To make it easier to reach the broadest possible market, the company based WISEPILOT on two editions of the Java platform: the server side on the Enterprise Edition (Java EE) and the mobile client side on the Micro Edition (Java ME). Through Appello's partnerships with major wireless carriers and distributors WISEPILOT has quickly become recognized throughout Scandinavia and the UK as the most advanced server-based navigation solution available. At the Swedish Mobile Awards in December 2005, WISEPILOT was awarded the Guldmobilen - "Golden Mobile" - for Best GPS Solution.

Appello's headquarters are in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Early in 2004, the founders of Appello Systems completed a years-long quest: to create an offboard navigation system that would provide state-of-the-art navigation capabilities to users of the current generation of mobile phones, smart phones, and PDAs.

As veterans of the mobile-applications and mobile-services industries in Sweden, Rasmus Ahlberg and his colleagues were familiar with Java technology, and predisposed to use it as the basis of Appello's first commercial application. "We started out saying 'Java is a good thing.' It's platform-agnostic, so we don't have to worry about writing applications for different devices. We can do a cross-platform application, which will mean quicker time-to-market and quicker adoption. And our development team's previous background had been with Java-based application servers, Java EE, and so on. So from the beginning we decided to use Java ME as the client platform, and Java EE as the server platform."

On the server side, Appello's developers combined proprietary components for communication, authentication, and user management with essential applications and data from third parties. NAVTEQ, a leading provider of digital map information, supplies comprehensive map data that is updated every quarter. Telcontar, a leader in location-based services, provides the geospatial software platform that facilitates activities such as navigation, driving directions, tracking, and trip planning.

The Appello Navigation Server also incorporates data streams such as real-time traffic feeds, and it is tightly integrated with directory services. "To identify a destination in a navigation system, typically you have to enter an address," says Ahlberg. "But because we integrate with directory services such as white pages, yellow pages, and POI" - points of interest - "you don't have to know the address. You can enter the name of a person or company, or the home phone number, or the mobile phone number, and get a destination from that."

On the client side, Appello's developers created a small-footprint application that takes advantage of JSR 82, the Java APIs for Bluetooth wireless technology. This specification enables the Java-based client application to communicate with a Bluetooth GPS receiver. "We're very much dependent on that to support a lot of the newer phones," says Ahlberg. Other JSRs allowed the development team to incorporate advanced functionality on the handset, such as 3D, 2D vector mapping, integration with the handset's contact book, and sending SMS messages.

After 18 months of development by a team of five, WISEPILOT was delivered in June 2005, in conjunction with TeliaSonera, the Swedish wireless carrier. Subsequent launches in the U.S., with Sony Ericsson, and in the U.K., with leading wireless distributor Elite Mobile, confirmed the appeal of a state-of-the-art navigation system that works with a wide assortment of the latest mobile devices. "It is a real coup for Elite Mobile and a superb product for our customers," said Barry Nash, Director, Sales and Marketing for Elite Mobile. "It is one they will find easy to sell, offering all the features of far more expensive satnav products. It is simple to use, exceptional value for the money, and of excellent quality."

One of Appello's next priorities, Ahlberg says, is to get WISEPILOT certified by the Java Verified Program (http://www.javaverified.com/). "First of all, it's a third-party stamp of quality, that the application is good. Also, to get preinstalled on all the handsets that we're compatible with - that is definitely a requirement for them."

WISEPILOT is a comprehensive platform for navigation that enables telecom operators and companies to offer their customers a continuously updated mobile navigation service.

WISEPILOT quickly transforms mobile phones into all-inclusive navigation systems, with maps of Europe and North America updated regularly. Besides high-quality navigation for driving and walking in cities, WISEPILOT contains updated traffic information and speed-camera alerts, as well as a unique and very simple approach to finding one's destination, thanks to integration with leading directory services.

Future versions of WISEPILOT will introduce new functionality in such areas as machine-to-machine interaction.

For more information, see www.wisepilot.com.