OmniSky Corporation (Nasdaq:OMNY), a leading global provider of award-winning wireless applications and services, announced today that it has received two United States provisional patents for systems and methods integral to providing location-based services. The first provisional patent covers systems and methods designed to predict and deliver location and time-sensitive information, such as maps, directions, event notices and similar data, to users of mobile devices based on user profiles, "information consumption patterns" and user defined rules. The second provisional patent covers virtual, interactive characters created for a mobile computing environment and is intended to promote commerce, travel and interaction based on a mobile user's location, shopping habits, lifestyle, personal profiles and other relevant information.
"These provisional patents affirm OmniSky's continued technology leadership in the wireless data sector," said Patrick McVeigh, OmniSky's chief executive officer. "We continue to enhance our core technology through the OmniSky Oxygen platform with proprietary solutions that offer our subscribers, wireless carriers and hardware manufacturers the types of compelling applications necessary to ignite the mobile data market."
According to a recent International Data Corporation study, location-enabled subscribers in the US are projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 74 percent to 149 million by 2005. OmniSky expects to launch its location-based services, known as "OS Cities" and "OS People," in the upcoming release of the OmniSky Oxygen platform. Using OmniSky's proprietary location-based services, end users will be able to:
-- Locate and access comprehensive and media-rich information
about local restaurants, entertainment venues, and other businesses as a function of their location; view and interact with maps and receive directions to those businesses; and save this information on their handheld device.
-- Connect with merchants in person or online to complete a transaction, such as buying movie tickets or making restaurant reservations.
-- Identify the location of -- and invite other subscribers to -- an event or a place and send along pertinent data including the address and directions, which, in turn, can be saved on the handheld device.
-- Engage in real-time communications and collaboration, including instant messaging, with friends and colleagues.
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