Basically a mobile terminal with a TV connection and a remote control, ippi transforms the TV set into a communication center from which end users can send and receive messages from all over the world via MMS, SMS and even e-mail.

The product works a bit like an answering machine, telling you when you have received a message. By switching on the TV and activating ippi, the message is shown directly on the TV screen and, via ippi, you can reply to the messages.

Mats Segerström

Mats Segerström, one of In View’s founders, says that active families with children are an important group of target end users, as are older people with limited IT experience. “For them, this is the most cost-efficient and simple way to get their home connected,” he says.

Looking at suitable industry applications for ippi, Segerström sees elderly care as one. In View has conducted trials with the Swedish elderly-care company Attendo Care, which now is one of In View’s first customers.

Segerström also sees great potential for ippi in providing various kinds of public services. A good example of that, he says, is the EU project MonAMI, of which ippi is a part, providing services to elderly and disabled people via digital television, mobile phones and the internet. The media industry is also a natural user of ippi, he says, because it provides a cost-efficient way to get targeted content to end users.

Segerström says that in less technologically mature markets, where PCs and the internet are not commonly used, ippi could, for many, be the first step into the digital society.

In View has received its first ippi orders from Attendo Care and a couple of operators. They are just now starting to market ippi actively and will attend the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February.

In View has a marketing cooperation agreement with Ericsson. “This will be very useful because many of the customers we are targeting are already Ericsson customers,” Segerström says. “We are also very pleased to be represented in the Ericsson Experience Center, as it gives us an excellent opportunity to show potential customers how ippi works in real life.”

Jean-Louis Mansourati, partner manager for In View at Ericsson, says ippi is an innovative solution that makes life easier for end users.

Segerström urges all developers working on applications that might benefit from the TV format to contact with In View. “We are very keen on finding new applications for ippi,” he says.

In View website:  www.inview.se/eng/index.html

By Benny Ritzén