Jentro Technologies Launches ZenletTM Platform to Accelerate Location-based Content Delivery to Mobile Devices

MUNICH, Germany-- Jentro Technologies GmbH, a worldwide provider of mobility solutions, announced today the launch of its new ZenletTM platform to facilitate the rapid development and delivery of unique, relevant and rich location-based, social networking and vertical content mini-applications, called “Zenlets.”

These Zenlets can be accessed easily within a single client application on the mobile device – thus enhancing the personalized mobile Internet experience. This combined mobile browser and location-aware plug-in technology platform goes far beyond other widget platforms and further supports Jentro’s position as the leading provider of flexible mobility solutions. This will enable Jentro clients to use pre-packaged solutions, create a custom suite of applications out of Jentro’s Zenlet applications catalogue and to ultimately offer a customer-choice experience to the market, whereby the Zenlets can be pre-loaded on the mobile devices or with a “push of a button” delivered over-the-air with relatively low data transmission volume to increase customer satisfaction and usage.

The unique Zenlet engine – the plug-in container application – allows for the seamless delivery of content through platform-independent Zenlets to mobile phones, connected personal navigation devices (PNDs) as well as to in-dash computers. The Zenlet engine has a very small footprint, is available for Java ME, and will be available soon for Symbian OS and Windows Mobile platforms.

Jentro will offer the Zenlet engine as a white-label client application, where clients can brand the application with their brand name, logo, change the color scheme and icons to deliver a truly branded solution to their customers, optionally including maps, upgradeable with driving directions and/or GPS navigation.

“Our team has been working on a way to deliver pre-packaged solutions to the market that also allow for the flexibility to add unique content to an existing package, or create a new one, to meet the changing needs of our clients’ customers,” said Kate Edwards, Chief Executive Officer, Jentro Technologies. “The Zenlet platform enables rapid development and deployment of location-based content applications – a feature we believe differentiates us in the market and drives value for our clients looking to get a solution up and running in a relatively short period of time.”

Clients can develop their own applications to plug-and-play into the Zenlet platform using a Zenlet Software Development Kit (SDK) that Jentro will offer soon to developers and publishers to bring their content to millions of mobile users. Zenlets can be developed either using a powerful imperative Zenlet programming language similar to Java, or using an XML-based declarative Zenlet description language, developed in PHP, Perl, Python, C or C++. This allows the implementation of simple applications such as weather, local search and flight updates, as well as rich applications such as friends finder, fleet management and off-route hiking.

The Zenlet platform supports various APIs, such as a rich user interface, location experience (GPS, Cell ID, and/or WiFi), maps, directions, navigation, as well as mobile device capabilities such as telephony functions, messaging, camera and/or Bluetooth. The Zenlet platform includes an advertising proxy, as well as a payment/billing framework to offer ad-based free applications, transaction-based applications and subscription models.

“The Zenlet platform offers a huge advantage for handset and PND manufacturers to overcome the relatively long production cycles of their devices and to refresh and offer the trendiest location-aware mobile applications with the first launch of the pre-loaded container application over-the-air,” added Erno Hempel, Chief Technology Officer, Jentro Technologies.

About Jentro

Jentro Technologies GmbH develops and markets a platform for mobility solutions including turn-by-turn navigation, integrated local search, traffic, social networking and vertical content integration. Through Jentro’s platform, solutions have been deployed on over 160 different mass market mobile devices, on multiple operating systems, and in three continents. Jentro provides mobility solutions to enterprise customers worldwide and powers major mobile operators, mobile and portable navigation device manufacturers, retail brands and consumer brands. The company was founded in 2003 is privately owned and based Munich, Germany – with worldwide offices in Chicago, London, Paris and Seoul. Further information is available at: www.jentro.com.