Mountain View, CA – February 25, 2009 – Skyfire has filled out its executive team talent with the announcement today that Jason Guesman has joined as senior vice president of sales and marketing. Guesman is a mobile industry veteran with over 15 years of experience. Guesman joins Skyfire as the company looks to scale its business-to-business initiatives, with a focus on direct sales to device OEMs and carriers. Skyfire’s new B2B product line will grow in parallel to its well-known Skyfire direct-to-consumer mobile browser.
As an SVP and GM at Seven Networks for the past six years, Guesman was responsible for multi-million dollar deals spanning major device manufacturers and carriers around the world. Prior to Seven Networks, Guesman served as director of business marketing at Sprint PCS, which was preceded by a role with the FCC where he served in the Cable Services Bureau and as part of the team managing the wireless spectrum auctions.
“It’s exciting to join a company that I feel is truly differentiated in the mobile space,” explained Guesman. “Simply put, Skyfire offers the most innovative and advanced mobile browsing technology in the world today, due to its cloud computing platform. I look forward to expanding the Skyfire business and fostering partnerships that will take the technology to high-scale deployment in the industry.”
Guesman is Skyfire’s third major talent acquisition in just the past eight months. Guesman’s arrival follows the appointment of Jeffrey Glueck as CEO in July 2009 and this month’s acquisition of kolbysoft, makers of the Steel browser for Android.
“We have fantastic momentum right now, and we’re thrilled to have someone of Jason’s caliber on board to carry it through,” said Jeffrey Glueck, CEO of Skyfire. “Skyfire’s technology is well suited to confront some of the biggest challenges in mobile today, such as data congestion and the unreliability of mobile video. Jason has the industry experience and relationships to accelerate our solutions into the B2B space.”
Carriers and OEMs interested in working with Skyfire may contact Jason Guesman at jguesman AT skyfire.com
Today, we are announcing the acquisition of kolbysoft, creators of the Steel mobile browser for Android. The acquisition is effective immediately.
Many of our Skyfire fans have been clamoring for when they could get Skyfire for Android. We have been working on it, and with this acquisition, we add resources to speed that effort.
By adding kolbysoft’s talent to Skyfire, we’ll be able to fuse the best of Skyfire’s famed cloud-computing multimedia capabilities with the Webkit browser movement to create a better hybrid model for Android. Steel has been the most acclaimed browser in the Android Marketplace, adding features atop Webkit. Together, we’ll be able to do so much more.
The acquisition brings considerable Android and user experience know-how to Skyfire. Michael Kolb, founder of kolbysoft, will become chief client architect for all of Skyfire’s browsers across operating systems. All of us at Skyfire are thrilled to work with Michael, and welcome him aboard.
Users of the existing version of the Steel browser will still be able to use the current version, but will be offered upgrades to Skyfire Android edition once it is released. We can’t share any timing or more details at this time, but I promise you’ll like it. Sign up to follow Skyfire on Facebook or Twitter and you’ll be the first to hear when news is announced.
Now that Skyfire has released version 1.5 for both Windows Mobile (5.0, 6.0, 6.1 and 6.5) and Symbian (S60 3rd and 5th edition) we want to celebrate by giving away an unlocked Nokia N97 device to one deserving winner. Want to enter the running?Here is how:
We want the World to know about Skyfire, and our browser’s ability to bring the PC Web experience to mobile devices.Who better to spread this message, than our fans.
We celebrate “video” here at Skyfire - to enter the contest, simply create a video of your own about Skyfire.Make it funny – Make it Clever – Just make a video that you think will help us spread the word about our favorite mobile browser.Then, upload your video to Youtube.com and email us the link @ MyVideo@Skyfire.com.
The winning video will be the one that best showcases Skyfire,and one that we can use on our website to help “spread the word” about Skyfire’s unique browsing capabilities.
The Winner will win a new, unlocked Nokia N97 device complete with Skyfire version 1.5!
Contest Ends February 20th, 2010 (5:00pm PST).We will announce the winner February 23rd!
We are excited to release the new version of Skyfire 1.5 for Nokia Symbian S60 devices.
For the first time, we’re also offering our browser for S60 5th Edition phones, the latest touch screen Nokia phones, and we’ve made our interfaces finger-friendly for these stylus-free screens.The release includes a more intuitive user interface for all users, and even faster browsing.
What’s new with Skyfire 1.5 for Symbian S60 3rd edition?
Smooth Scrolling: Scroll operations are more fluid.
Updated user interface for 3rd edition devices.
Performance tweaks: Manysmallenhancementsfora more robustand faster browsing experience.
What’s new with Skyfire 1.5 for Symbian S60 5th edition (Beta)?
Available for the first time on Symbian S60 5th edition.
Finger friendly UI: A new, intuitive, and finger friendly UI for high resolution touchscreendevices provides an easier browsing experience.
Smooth Scrolling: Kinetic scrolling has been enabled to Skyfire. Pan or flick the screen to move in any direction smoothly on touchscreen.
Full screen mode: For touchscreen, browse in full screen mode for maximum screen real estate.Bring the controls back by clicking on the corner icon at any time.
Auto-Rotate: Browse in portrait or landscape mode with a simple change of the device orientation.
You can watch the video that summarizes the latest updates, here.
Skyfire on Symbian S60 inherits all the unique Skyfire benefits that make it the best mobile browsing experience available, and still Free (!) to download:
“Full web” mobile browser: The only mobile web browser to support all the rich media on the web for a PC-like web browsing experience.
Browse any page: Browse your favorite websites on Skyfire exactly like you do on your PC. No compromises! We’re the only mobile browser to support all major Web 2.0 standards - Ajax, JavaScript, Flash 10 - it just works.
Watch any video: Skyfire is the only mobile browser that gives access to the full media experience on the internet by supporting Flash 10, Silverlight 3.0 and Windows Media. Catch up on the freshest sports commentary, celebrity gossip or TV on your phone!
Share instantly: Easily share what you find on the web or what you are up to. Post web pages and status updates to Facebook and Twitter, with one click!
Stay connected: Check your Gmail, follow your friends’ Facebook and Twitter updates, and keep track of news, sports, video and other content in your own customizable activity feed.
Blazing fast: Skyfire fires up fast and web pages load quickly. Skyfire is the fastest mobile browser available in market.
With this latest release, Skyfire is available on the full set of the most popular smartphones in the world, the Nokia N and E series. So happy browsing!
One other note:Our new version 1.5 for Symbian and WindowsMobile is not available for download in China for the time being.We have been studying how to better support users in China (local character entry, a local data center, etc.).Until we are able to deliver an enhanced product for Chinese users, we have decided to place a hold on accepting new users from China. However, we will continue to support our existing users in China.
Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook to receive the latest updates.
We are proud to release today the best Skyfire browser yet.For those of you with high resolution (VGA) screens, you will appreciate the crisp text and stunning graphics of the new browser.The Windows Mobile version launches today, and we expect to have news for Nokia Symbian touch screen and high resolution phones very shortly.
Skyfire is a little company with a big mission:to ensure you can access on your mobile phone all the best web content that you can access on a desktop computer today.That’s a hard challenge, and so far we’re the only company that has found an elegant solution, using our Cloud Computing centers to boost your phones’ native capabilities.And with Skyfire browser v1.5, I am proud of all our latest improvements.Not just high resolution browsing, but also easier browsing, with our new user interface that’s more “finger friendly,” a full-screen mode that uses every inch of your screen, and so much more.
We’ve recorded a video discussing and demonstrating the new improvements, which you can check out here.
Yesterday, we rolled out some new features. They are all on the server side so there is no need to upgrade. Simply launch Skyfire to experience what’s new:
·In-line Gmail reply/read: If you have your Gmail account set up through Skyfire, the next time you start your browser you will be able to read and reply to your e-mails directly from the start page without having to navigate back and forth to Gmail.
·Skyfire Marketing Communication: Now you can know exactly what we are up to by just firing up Skyfire and reading our Tweets on your start page. We will use this stream to announce major product updates, fun use cases for Skyfire, and Skyfire sponsored contests.
·Zeitgeist Searches: When you launch Skyfire, you will notice that you can now not only see your most recent searches but also browse what the world is searching for on Google. This is always a lot of fun!
Hope you enjoy these new features. Let us know what you think at feedback@skyfire.com, or send us a tweet.
I wanted to address a topic that a number of Skyfire fans have written in about. Skyfire users have been wondering why Hulu videos are currently not playing in Skyfire. The answer is simple: Hulu has decided to block you from watching Hulu videos in the Skyfire browser, as part of blocking all mobile access to Hulu, as well as TV access such as with Boxee and PlayStation.
There is nothing wrong with your Skyfire browser, and you can watch other videos on the web. Hulu should be allowed to speak for themselves as to their reasons for blocking Skyfire browsers, but you can find a post that Hulu made on this site: http://www.tribbleagency.com/?p=5602.
As a side note, a few people have speculated that Skyfire was not respecting Hulu’s geographic restrictions (Hulu blocks anyone with an IP address outside the US). That has never been the case. Skyfire as a browser passes through IP addresses to website publishers as does any other browser, and Hulu was only visible on Skyfire in the US.
Rest assured, we want to give you the web content you love, and enable media publishers to distribute their content without compromise, in ways that make sense for users to understand and live with. We think you ought to be able to browse to any content that is available on the internet. Companies should find a way for you to get the content you love on the screens you want. We hope to see a future solution for our users.
I am happy to announce that our Series B investors have contributed another $5M in funding to Skyfire. This closes our Series B investment at $18M when considered with the earlier investment of $13M in May 08, and it brings us to a total of $22.8M raised since our founding. We are thrilled to have the support and commitment from such stellar firms as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and Trinity Ventures. This funding enables us to recruit and maintain the most talented engineers in the world, and run the cloud computing data centers that speed up the full internet and compress it for high-speed delivery to your mobile phones. From it, our users get the happiness of web video and the freedom to go to any website without those dreaded plug-in errors that plague other mobile phones, like “Flash required to view this content”.
With these latest funds, we will continue to accelerate our growth to support new smartphone platforms beyond Windows Mobile, Symbian and BlackBerry. And, we will continue our work on solutions that utilize our unique technology beyond the browser. Later this year, expect to hear more about this. In the meantime, we’re heads down innovating Skyfire with more social browsing features and bringing it to the BlackBerry platform. That’s what is immediately in front of us. We hear all of you waiting for a better browsing experience on the BlackBerry and Symbian S60, 5th edition. We are working hard and will let you all know when we’re ready to bring those to public beta.
We are excited about closing our Series B and feel well poised for some exciting work and innovation over the coming year, to continue bringing revolutionary technologies to the mobile web. Thank you to all our users who keep posting and tweeting about how they love Skyfire. By word of mouth and the great reviews and blogs and accolades Skyfire continues to earn, we’ve seen our page views grow over 200% since the start of this year. And lots more to come.
Yesterday, we rolled out some new features. They are all on the server side so there is no need to upgrade. Simply launch Skyfire to experience what’s new:
New profile photos: Take a look at the Skyfire start page, and if you have Twitter and Facebook integrated, all your friends’ posts and tweets now display their corresponding user profile photo.
Improved Facebook & Twitter status updates: Right from the start page, we’ve included a text-entry box for status updates, improving the previous flow and making it easier to instantly tell your friends what you’re up to. As before, you can broadcast to both of your networks simultaneously, or chose just one.
Easier to add RSS feeds: Now you can easily search and add custom feeds from a single page. From the My Feeds in the Customize function, you can search a URL and get the various RSS feeds for that website. In one click, you can add your favorite RSS feeds.
Hope you enjoy these new features. Let us know what you think at feedback@skyfire.com, or send us a tweet.
Subscribe by email
Subscribe to this blog
