“After attracting nearly 5 million downloads of its Outlook add-in, Xobni has today announced the availability of a new application for Blackberry smartphones; Xobni Mobile.
Xobni Mobile’s main function is to incorporate social elements into the Blackberry messaging system, connecting a persons social profiles of which a Xobni user has communicated with. Instead of placing emphasis on helping a user organise their email account, Xobni Mobile exists to help strengthen the users relationship management.
Xobni has also launched a new service called Xobni One that links information between Microsoft Outlook and the mobile versions of the software. This connects the address books of different Xobni clients via The Cloud and enables a user to be in control of a more up-to-date address book.
Almost a year ago Xobni completed an estimated $3 million Series B from BlackBerry Partners Fund. Soon after, Techcrunch reported that there was around a 50% overlap between Xobni and Outlook users, this made a foray into Blackberry application development the most logical for the company.
When a Blackberry user selects a contact on his/her Blackberry, Xobni automatically gets to work creating a personal profile on that particular contact. The application offers the user an up-to-date list of contacts that are ranked in order of relevance instead of the traditional alphabetical listing when the Blackberry trackball is “flicked up” within the native Blackberry email application. Xobni Mobile’s feature set is pretty impressive, boasting:
- Email addresses for everyone with whom you communicate
- Automatic phone number extraction
- Access to contacts using Xobni within the email compose screen or in standalone application
- Prioritized contacts using Xobni Rank, which lists contacts by how often you communicate with them versus alphabetically
- Saving of Xobni profiles in the event of hard drive crash or lost phone
- One-click access to Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, including photos
- Recent SMS, phone calls and emails exchanged, and shared appointments
- The ability to send your calendar availability to all contacts
Non-Exchange users can also take advantage of the Xobni functionality by downloading the app and using it without the Xobni One sync. Whilst users don’t get the benefit of historic contacts, Xobni does still index email and present relevant information to the user.
Jeff Bonforte, CEO of Xobni says:
The launch of Xobni Mobile on the BlackBerry platform is an important milestone for the company, and we has made this even more compelling by powering it with Xobni One. This new service is the foundation for all our future products, and is the result of a significant investment from our product and engineering teams.”
Xobni Mobile for BlackBerry costs $9.99 (one-time fee) and is available to download at www.xobni.com/mobile, launching soon on BlackBerry App World™. A monthly Xobni One subscription costs $3.99 with a one time fee of $6.99 and a one-year subscription (with the app included) is $39.90.
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