I've been using Qix on a S60 phone for the last few months. At heart it allows quick access to mutiple phone functions. From the idle screen you start typing a number or a name, and this brings up a list of available matching items. In this sense the program can be considered a smart dialing program. However, on contrast to similar program, it allows access to more than just the phone number or names in your addressbook. It also enables access to other phone services and information, these range from the contents of help files, to programs, and to bookmarks stored in your browser. The discovery engine is continually updating itself (and also learns from your uage pattern) so that new contacts and newly installed third party programs are available through it.
Zi is hoping to license Qix to operators (on the basis it improves ARPU because it makes the phones and its service easier to use lowering barriers to entry), and thus unfortuantely it is not available to end users at the current time.
Zi extends Qix solution across Symbian OS
Qix expansion to boost ARPU for wider phone range
Lund, Sweden and Calgary, AB, Canada, February 10, 2006 - Zi Corporation (Nasdaq: ZICA) (TSX: ZIC), a leading provider of intelligent interface solutions, has extended the range of user interfaces (UI) supported by its revolutionary Qix™ service discovery engine to the UIQ platform. This announcement comes along one month after the company revealed improved ARPU statistics as part of its UK trial with Virgin Mobile. Zi Corporation will be demonstrating Qix on UIQ at stand E40 in Hall 2 at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, February 13 to 16, 2006. Qix now supports two licensable UIs available for Symbian OS™ smartphones. Qix for UIQ will offer the same features and functionality as the Qix version for S60. Transferring the Qix solution across to UIQ enables Zi to extend the reach of Qix across a larger range of Symbian OS based phones.
"This is a significant step forward for Zi's Qix technology and comes hard on the heels of the encouraging signs we are seeing from our trials with Virgin Mobile," comments Zi Corporation's chief technical officer and chief operating officer Milos Djokovic, "Qix now supports the two most important user interfaces deployed in the smartphone market. The Qix service discovery engine has created interest from operators worldwide because of its proven ability to drive up service revenues. Extending Qix to encompass the important UIQ user interface is another step towards making Qix totally ubiquitous."
"As a leader in UI technology UIQ Technology recognizes the important role that Qix is playing in enabling fast and intuitive usage of the smartphone's functions and feature" says Elisabet Melin, VP Marketing at UIQ Technology.
"Up to Q3 2005 almost 48 million Symbian OS smartphones had shipped worldwide," said Simon Garth, VP of Marketing, Symbian. "Zi's decision to enable Qix for the UIQ user interface will bring this advanced functionality to even more smartphone users."
Qix is now supported on version 2.1 of UIQ, the platform utilized by the Sony Ericsson P910i. Zi expects to extend support to version 3 of UIQ by the end of the year.
The recently launched UIQ 3 platform is an open software platform, based on Symbian OS, allowing developers to potentially target all UIQ 3 based phones from different manufacturers, using one single codeline. Applications will automatically receive the look and feel of the device they run on without the need for the developer to write extra code for it. Updates and bug fixes will be identical for all target platforms, and only one code update is needed to propagate it to all UIQ 3 based handsets. Developers will benefit from shorter time-to-market since code written for UIQ 3 will be identical through all handsets, unless device specific features have been used.
Qix provides an intuitive, fast search index for a mobile user, in the same way that an Internet search engine helps web surfers find what they are looking for. Qix is an innovative mobile service discovery engine that sits on the phone's idle screen and combines predictive text and content indexing to enable rapid discovery of contacts, features and services on a mobile phone.
Qix encourages greater Average Revenue per User (ARPU) by significantly reducing the number of key presses needed to use a phone, thereby enhancing the user experience for the subscriber and simultaneously driving service usage and adoption. Over time, Qix's interactive memory remembers new user data, including new URL bookmarks and called numbers for future presentation. It also tracks frequently used personal selections over time and then presents them with priority over other information, providing easy access to favorite items of the user. Visit www.zicorp.com/qix for more product information.
The company will be at next week's 3GSM World Congress conference in Barcelona, Spain from February 13 - 16, 2006. Visitors to the Zi stand (E40, Hall 2) will see new language software for its eZiText® and eZiTap™ text input technologies, further developments of Zi's world class Decuma® natural handwriting recognition and its revolutionary Qix service discovery engine.