The History of the PACE Client
Phidget is based in North Sydney, Australia. The Company was founded in 2007 with the goal of delivering big screen advertising on a mobile phone handset.
history of PACE
PACE has its roots in projects dating back to 1998 with the release of the Bullant Remote® Smart Client. The Remote was an application browser rather than a web browser - functionally it was equivalent to todays's asynchronous browser based apps except that the user-interface used native UI controls on the device.
Chris presented a proposal to Omnisky Wireless to pre-install the Bullant Remote for Palm OS® PDAs on OmniSky enabled devices. Space being at a premium on the Palm V®, Chris proposed that the Bullant Remote be made to appear to be multi-tasking by running multiple apps in 'tabs'.
This approach is analogous to ‘tabs’ in today's browsers: Using one client, the user could appear to have many simultaneous native applications running on their wireless device.
This pseudo-multi-tasking idea was taken up and migrated into Bullant's first true mobile product, the Bullant Remote for DoJa and thence to J2ME MIDP and, finally in 2003, to [an error occurred while processing this directive] for the Nokia 7650 release.
The idea of multiple independent campaigns in PACE is traceable back to the original feature in the Bullant product.
Chris, as CEO of Bullant went, on to sell various solutions based on this platform including:
- Vodafone UK, Call-Share
- The 2003-2004 Call-Share R&D project for Vodafone UK was a 3G in-call information sharing service for Series 60 handsets. It demonstrated the potential of call-intercept and in-call updates using the simultaneous voice-and-data capability of a UMTS network, both of which are core features of PACE.
- Optus Australia, Community Noticeboard
- Community Noticeboard was prototype mobile social networking product built in 2004. It made extensive use of Cell Id based location services as well as real-time messaging, image-sharing and RSS feeds.
- Optus Australia, MyZooNow
- MyZooNow, launched in 2005, included a range of features such as location (Cell Id) triggered content updates and a native Series 60 screensaver.
In all of the apps, above, battery life was cited as a the most significant concern for end-users.
building PACE
Bullant merged with ECONZ Wireless in 2006 to form uiActive (now named xumii). Post merger, Chris left the Company he formed and created a new business - Phidget - based on the idea of rich, immersive mobile advertising. PACE, the result, was first demonstrated in late 2007.
PACE attempts to provide the features that people love: screensaver updates, in-call updates, location driven services, etc., but without imposing any significant overhead on battery life.
The client is lean, fast, efficient and effective because it is built on a wealth of prior experience.
about our name
The company is called Phidget after a remark
by a Bullant colleague Scott Newham, who said "you should call it Fidget because you can't stop fiddling with that phone".
The phidget.com domain being available, the name stuck.