China pact lifts Synchronica
Article Date: Jun 05 2008Mobile email software provider Synchronica has won a potentially large contract with China’s largest mobile telephone manufacturer.
As part of the deal, the Tunbridge Wells-based company’s Mobile Gateway email and synchronisation software product will be offered to all the as-yet-unnamed manufacturer’s customers via China’s major mobile network operators. The Chinese company will pay Synchronica 20 per cent of all revenues it earns for the service, with a minimum of US$1 per handset per year.
The service will initially be offered to customers in China but will be expanded worldwide in due course, with the huge potential size of the market indicated by the 16 million devices the manufacturer expects to ship this year. Synchronica’s chief executive Carsten Brinkschulte said he believes the deal ‘offers massive potential for recurring and growing revenue streams’.
He identified emerging markets as particularly disposed to acceptance of the company’s technology, which forms the main crux of his long-term strategy. ‘The Chinese market is ideally suited for mass-market mobile email, as 82 per cent of the population lack web connections and six out of ten people still don't own mobile phones, providing an opportunity for operators to make the mobile phone the primary form of accessing the internet and email.’
Shares in Synchronica, which bombed to 5.25p after touching 352.5p three years ago, jumped 24.4 per cent to 7p on this morning's news deal. With analysts expecting Synchronica to move into the black in 2009, they offer recovery potential.
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