Mobile Instant Messaging from Palringo Pre-Loaded on More Than 50 Device Models from Alcatel, Cellon, and Samsung

SAN FRANCISCO and LONDON, February 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Palringo's Innovative Voice, Text and Picture Messaging Service Adds An Additional 1M Subscribers

Palringo, the mobile instant messaging company, today announced that worldwide agreements with Alcatel, Cellon and Samsung to ship phones with their popular mobile IM application pre-installed have resulted in an additional 1M users accessing the popular group messaging service. With close to seven million users sending tens of billions of messages each month, Palringo brings smartphone functionality to any mobile device, allowing manufacturers to offer differentiated features, even on the most basic phones. Palringo will be exhibiting at Mobile World Congress, February 14 - 17, in the AppPlanet Hall, Stand 7D22.

More than 50 different device models now come with the Palringo application pre-loaded, allowing manufacturers and operators to offer low-cost, basic phones with differentiated features such as push-to-talk, picture messaging, and location and presence functionality. Palringo also provides manufacturers with the ability to develop their own branded IM networks and active address books that can integrate presence, location and status information for contacts.

"We have found that there is a high demand for truly mobile messaging solutions for sharing text, voice and pictures with individuals and within groups. And it is important that they work in any environment, on any phone," said Tim Rea, CEO, Palringo. "We've worked with our manufacturer partners to develop a solution and a business model that makes it attractive for everyone across the value chain to provide these innovative services to a broad range of subscribers using a broad range of devices."

How Does it Work?

Palringo has developed its own end-to-end telco-grade IM network with a proprietary protocol designed specifically to enable rich communications on any mobile device. The Palringo client works on all major mobile OSes, provides a robust network with more than 150,000 active affinity groups, and is able to connect to popular IM services. In addition to sending text-based IMs, users enjoy a host of additional features including:

    
    - Voice: A flexible form of push-to-talk messaging that allows users to
      use their phones like walkie-talkies;
    - Pictures: Palringo makes it easy to snap a picture on the phone, or
      select a picture from the on-device album, and drop it into an on-going
      discussion with an individual or within a group.
    - Groups: Palringo's group function is flexible and scalable and can
      easily accommodate hundreds of individuals within a group, making it a
      perfect communications tool for clubs, games enthusiasts and other
      affinity-based groups;
    - Location: Palringo offers a rich location/presence functionality that
      adds an additional level of communication within groups.

About Palringo

Founded in 2006, the UK and San Francisco-based Palringo has built a new type of mobile communication solution that takes the PC-based instant messaging experience and makes it uniquely mobile. With close to seven million users sending tens of billions of messages monthly, the company has built a hardened, scalable system that delivers a compelling user experience to the consumer and a valuable communications tool to the enterprise. For more information, visit http://www.palringo.com