Hi guys, i just wanted to know what happened to the bluepulse bluetooth installation? . I personally follow this startup for about a year or so, and realized they suddenly changed their business model. I can’t find any information about what happened to the bluetooth solution. Was it profitable? Are they still in the location based business? .

Cheers!

Bluepulse

Sector: Mobile applications

Headquarters: Sydney, Australia

Management: CEO and founder Ben Keighran was formerly the CTO of Simply Wireless. Alan Jones is Bluepulse’s VP of Answering Questions.

Secret Sauce: Ben Keighran founded Bluepulse in 2002 because he just wanted to play some music on his mobile phone. Bluepulse gained early buzz when, in October 2004, it launched a large Bluetooth network in a Sydney shopping center that provided directions, in-store specials, and a location-based instant messenger. The company now develops and commercializes its proprietary Open Application Delivery Platform (OADP) and Small Portable Object Technology (SPOT). Together these technologies enable the delivery of data, based on a user’s profile, to a mobile end-station—regardless of the network and device used—via small software applications called “bluepulse widgets.”

Using OADP, developers only have to write one application, and it will work on hundreds of devices. They can create new apps and get them delivered free to phones and networks around the world. For mobile users, Bluepulse is just as flexible. Carriers can no longer tell their subscribers what applications they can or can’t run. Default Bluepulse content currently includes a unified instant messenger that supports MSN, Yahoo!, and ICQ. Quite an attention-grabber and well worth the installation of the tiny Bluepulse client on a mobile device.

While currently a little light on content, it’s only a matter of time before an explosion of options will present themselves to Bluepulse users, and the company may be scrambling to provide web services like ratings, so users can find the most popular and most functional applications.

Bluepulse has adopted a revenue-share business model. As we’ve seen with other companies in both the mobile and video sectors, the trick is to land a few popular applications that users are willing to pay for. While Bluepulse widgets can be sold, subscribed-to, or given away freely, the company also generates revenue through providing professional development services and via a revenue share on widgets that use the bluepulse billing engine.

Seen and Heard: TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington reports, “People are calling Australia-based BluePulse the “Meebo of cell phones” and they may be right—although it is also a platform that allows developers to build phone access to just about any internet application as well.” CNET’s MobileCrunch says, “…With less than 2 hours of personal playtime using the application, I’m suggesting that Bluepulse will be one of the first category dominant players in mobile 2.0.”