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Avantgo for EPOC details

During CeBIT 2001 Avantgo and Symbian announced a strategic partnership with Avantgo agrreing to develop the Avantgo application for the Symbian platform. More details about the news and press announcements can be found here in this epochelp news item.

Since then a few more details have emerged and what is known is presented here. There is now a page on the Avantgo website for EPOC. This page states that "AvantGo 4.0 software for Symbian-based devices will allow enterprises, wireless operators and device manufacturers to enhance their products and services, making corporate and personal information instantly accessible to mobile users. AvantGo 4.0 software provides access to applications and content, both wirelessly and off-line, speeding application performance over wireless networks and creating an extraordinary end user experience."

Screenshots of the new program in the Symbian Emulator

There was a further development when this story appeared on the PDA Geek website. They have been talking to PR people at Avantgo and say that the release is for ER6.1 only. This means that previous Psion machines (Revo, Series 5 and 7 etc.) will not be supported. However there is a large potential market here for AvantGo if Symbian becomes as dominant as some people expect them too (me included!). However it looks like this means that Quartz and Crystal machines will be supported.

What is AvantGo?

AvantGo is a program that originated on the PalmOS platform and is modified web browser. It reads 'Channels' that can be specially made or made from existing websites and web pages. These can be read offline (and generally are - they are downloaded during the syncing of a device), however viewing pages is also supported over an internet connection. As an example the BBC provide a news channel which has the top 5 stories or so from each of their main sections. There are literally thousands of channels available and are on very diverse pockets from Stocks and Shares watching to sports to cocktail guides. Increasingly pull services are also appearing (i.e. the ability to request a specific map to be made a available from the next sync via mapblast). Also appearing are location based services that give content specific to the area you are in. This tendency will only increase and this location based services is the big growth area.