A Microsoft spin-off formally know as ZenZui plans to release an open beta of a new mobile browsing user interface in mid-December.

Zumobi is offering a piece of software that works in connection with a back-end server and is designed to make mobile Internet use easier. The user interface is made up of 16 tiles on which users can easily zoom in and out. Each tile represents a Web page.

To see a very well done demo click here.

Zumobi’s back-end servers are constantly updating the Web sites on the phone, so a user doesn’t have to wait for the site to load after they click the tile. Users determine what site appears in each tile, and they can send tiles to each other.

The service will be free for end users and ad revenue supported. Advertisers can sponsor specific tiles that might offer information users might want, such as traffic updates. Un-like other entrants in this market like Google’s Android and Opera, Zumobi gives a cut to mobile operators if they pre-install the software onto phones.

Zumobi hopes to make the client available to many other types of phones (currently it is only compatible with Windows Mobile phones), with the Research in MotionBlackBerry next in line and expected in the second quarter of 2008. They realize that for the technology to really take off they will need to be present on a wide range of handsets and therefore platforms. Zumobi is thus designed to be able to work on a wide variety of hardware, including phones that have touch screens, numeric keypads and full keyboards and that operate in landscape or portrait modes.

The iPhone is also quite high on Zumobi’s list, but the company doesn’t want to officially say it will build a client for the phone until it sees the iPhone developer kit, which comes out next year. “This is about how you snack on content,” says John SanGiovanni, co-founder of Zumobi, “So in that sense we think iPhone users will love Zumobi.”

What is interesting is the name … as Microsoft is rumoured to be launching the Zune phone.. and Zumobi.

Tweet This Post