Airborne Mobile launches new applications in wake of rebranding to reflect expansion ambitions

After securing $2 million in funding from iNovia Capital, Montreal-based Airborne Mobile Inc. is set to usher in the new year with a slew of new product enterprises--an application for home buyers, an interactive TV application and a privacy application for cell phone users--that will cement the company's reputation as a leading contributor to the ever budding mobile media space. The mobile content company is touting the application for home buyers and real estate agents as a revolutionary move that will help home buyers and real estate agents buy and sell houses easily. To get set up, users send a simple text message on their mobile phones, thereafter allowing them to browse and download free information about homes for sale. "We are right now in the process of presenting it to top real estate agents across the country," says Andy Nulman, president and chief marketing officer. Nulman says he expects the process to be as natural as looking at a lawn sign advertising a home for sale. The interactive TV application, which is likely to be launched in the spring, has been described as a true merging of interactive television, using cellphones as an interactive generating device. Although Nulman says he can't delve into the nitty-gritty details of the application, he says it will be available across the country after the launch. "Once you use it, you will understand it," he says. "But basically they become stars of their own show. In essence you bring the best of talk show and do it on TV." The privacy application, which will is also be availed in the spring, allows users to converse with each other without revealing their numbers. Nulman says the anonymity aspect will be the key marketing point for the application which is expected to be popular among the general public and especially among dating agencies. Declining to be specific, Nulman says plans are currently afoot for the major mobile carriers to carry the application. As well, Nulman says the application will also be available through off deck venues, where users will be able to download it from a website. Asked how much all three applications are expected to garner in terms of revenues, Nulman could only say he expects a considerable addition to Airborne's bottom line in a major way. However, he says the funding from iNovia Capital, a Montreal-based venture company, was instrumental in executing plans for the three applications. "Whenever they see thing like this , they will want to finance the company," he says. For more than ten years, Airborne has been involved in producing innovative applications for the mobile media space. It was one of the early names that helped get the industry off the ground. Some of its major clients include names like Family GuyTM, MaximTM, NHLTM, SPEED TVTM, Food NetworkTM, Taco BellTM and Marc Ecko EnterprisesTM. Founded by Garner Bornstein and Andy Nulman, the company got its big break in 2000-2001, when a Disney executive challenged it to come up with a WAP game for its film Monsters, Inc. "The monochrome result was a reputation establishing hit-not just with the carriers and the public, but with the precision-demanding Disney folks-and set Airborne on a fast track with some of the continent's most prestigious and important media brands," says a statement on the company's website. In 2005, Bornstein and Nulman sold Airborne to a Japanese company called Cybird Co. Ltd for $110 million. Six months ago, they bought the company back, relieving Cybird of its majority shareholding. Immediately after buying back the company, Bornstein and Nulman changed its name from Airborne Entertainment to Airborne Mobile to reflect what both envisage as a wider scope of operations and expansion plans.

Airborne Mobile launches new applications in wake of rebranding to reflect expansion ambitions

Broadcast | January 26, 2009

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