"Although I am not really the type that feels nervous, I couldn't sleep last night," said Hiroki Ishida, president of FreeBit Co Ltd, which operates an Internet connection business, at its strategy briefing meeting May 14, 2009.
On that day, FreeBit announced the latest version (1.1b) of its "ServersMan@iPhone," communication software for Apple Inc's mobile phone, "iPhone 3G." This software turns the iPhone into a Web server that is accessible via the Internet. Using "Emotion Link," the company's proprietary communication technology, the software builds up a secure virtual network on an existing IP network.
The latest version supports English, and a communications center to realize a gateway function has been set up in the US at the same time. Also, FreeBit made it possible to acquire the software for free on the US "App Store." President Ishida was too excited to sleep because it was the night before FreeBit would use IT (information technology) to enter the US market, his dream since he established the company.
In addition to the localization, FreeBit introduced a development environment for applications software that runs on the ServersMan platform. The company developed the music playback and audio recording applications software in-house and included them in the latest version as standard features. The company is planning to disclose a software development tool and other tools as early as this summer to make it possible for external developers to develop applications software.
This time, FreeBit revealed that it has already completed the development of "ServersMan@iPhone 2.0b," the next version following 1.1b, and is currently waiting for Apple to evaluate it. The next version features a mechanism that enables to exchange multiple files in parallel within a virtual network, realizing a "communication speed" twice as high as that of 1.1b," Ishida said.
Furthermore, FreeBit started offering "ServersMan@Windows Mobile 1.0b" to the users of mobile phones based on "Windows Mobile," Microsoft Corp's operating system for mobile phones, for free in Japan. It can be downloaded from the company's Website. Having almost completed the development of English and Chinese versions, the company plans to release the software in the US and China in this year.
The software for Windows Mobile features a capability to use external compact memory cards as network storage and a function to make ServersMan run in the background while using other applications, in addition to the capabilities equivalent to those for the iPhone.
"Global shipments of Windows Mobile-based handsets reached 50 million units, much more than 17 million of the iPhone," Ishida said. "So, we are expecting a larger market."
FreeBit also demonstrated another version of ServersMan being developed for "Android," Google Inc's embedded software platform.
The company already started offering "ServersMan mini," communication software to use digital home appliances as Web servers. It is expecting to increase the number of ServersMan users by including the software not only in mobile phones but also in many other devices such as digital cameras, camcorders and digital photo frames.
FreeBit will start a fee-based service for heavy users by this summer to boost its revenue. Goals for sales in the fiscal year ending April 2012 are set at 30 billion yen, about three times the current sales, and 4.5 billion yen in recurring income.
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