AvantGo to Surpass One Billionth Sync

Posted By: Ryan Friday, November 19, 2004 1:09:39 PM

iAnywhere Solutions, a subsidiary of Sybase, has announced that its AvantGo mobile Internet service will reach one billion subscriber syncs in the month of November. In celebration of this milestone and the service's five-year anniversary, which highlights the growing momentum of the free service, AvantGo will feature a contest for subscribers and launch a special advertising program for channel partners.

AvantGo is a free service that delivers rich, personalized mobile websites to PDAs and smartphones. The AvantGo service leverages iAnywhere's patented technology to synchronize mobile optimized websites to PDA and smartphone users via a desktop or wireless Internet connection. An average user subscribes to 6-8 channels of content with about 100 pages of content per sync. Nearly half of AvantGo users view content on their device at least once per day.

Since 1999, AvantGo has helped hundreds of companies, including American Airlines, c|net, GM, Rolling Stone and The New York Times, influence and interact with the hard-to-reach audience of educated, tech-savvy business professionals through customized mobile website content. Offering advertiser conversion rates ranging from 15-20% and click-through rates averaging 5-10 times higher than typical Internet advertising, AvantGo has become the de facto mobile marketing leader.

AvantGo Continues History of Innovation in Mobile Marketing Along the way to its billionth sync, AvantGo has pioneered many firsts in mobile marketing including:

First PDA text ad

First WAP ad

First PDA graphic banner ad

First interactive PDA ad

First marketing survey conducted exclusively on PDAs & Smartphones

First In-Market Buyer PDA Auto Showroom

First One-Tap-to-Add Marketing Channel feature

First calendar entry insertion from an advertising link

First pre-post brand awareness study on a PDA

First One-Tap-to-Sync PDA Marketing Game application

In October alone, AvantGo launched six new campaigns on behalf of Audi, Acura, Corvette, Cadillac, Microsoft Office and c|net, highlighting the company's commitment to pioneering new ways to reach consumers through innovative viral marketing campaigns. A new way for consumers to buy a car: AvantGo created in-market buyer's channels for Audi, Acura and Cadillac, giving consumers the power to instantly access purchase-related information such as specifications and dealer locators. Beyond advertising: AvantGo created a PDA wallpaper branding campaign for Corvette and a PDA brand education game promotion for Microsoft Office. A new way for consumers to shop for electronics: AvantGo worked with c|net to create a customizable consumer buying guide with product reviews for 11 categories of electronics, including PDAs, laptops, MP3 Players, stereos, etc.

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Avantgo: First to loose my sync

gregjsmith @ 11/19/2004 5:55:54 PM #

Sorry Avantgo, if you would just have improved your Palm app I wouldn't have switched to iSilo long ago.

http://homepage.mac.com/gregjsmith

RE: Avantgo: First to loose my sync

gregjsmith @ 11/26/2004 6:05:47 PM #

Looks like they have addressed many of the complaints with their new beta. Including hires and SD card support. I put a quick overview up http://homepage.mac.com/gregjsmith/avantgo.html>here with picts.

http://homepage.mac.com/gregjsmith

AvantGo is dead.

The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/20/2004 11:34:21 AM #

AvantGo is an app that was useful for many people in 2000 - 2001. But now that we have Bluetooth/WiFi + decent web browsers, what's the point? And even if you don't have wireless access, iSilo is a better solution.

AvantGo is yet another startup that couldn't evolve and has withered. The 1 billion syncs touted in this breathless press release is meaningless. If you look at current usage patterns, no doubt you'd see almost no one gives a rat's a$$ about AvantGo anymore.

******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

RE: AvantGo is dead.

allen_goodman @ 11/21/2004 9:35:34 AM #

Interesting comment. I was wondering just how many people you have actually interviewed? While I personally like Isilo better, I still use Avantgo almost daily. The fact remains that when I am away from my PC and I only have my BT phone and my T2 available, I can still get my New York Times and CBS Market watch, etc. Yes there are features I would like. Scrolling would be one of them. But Avantgo is simpler to use than Isilo. Only 1 sync. Not a download then a sync. And I can use it away from my PC. It is fine to state your opinion. But please don't state my opinion.

RE: AvantGo is dead.

anjrober1 @ 11/21/2004 11:12:30 AM #

Couple quick comments on your note.

1. Besides caching HTML, Avantgo is also a decent web browser.
2. iSilo might be a good PIC user app but it never caught on with the general mom/dad population, AG did. I know many non-technical users that use AG and love it. Further, AG did a great job of getting the content. iSilo never convinced NYT, WSJ, Fidelity, etc to produce content, AG did.
3. If you read the article you would have found the AG is not a withering startup, but in fact, they executed their exit strategy and were purchased by Sybase.
4. Finally, AGs big growth now isn't in the consumer, it is in the enterprise. They are installing it behind the firewall and building apps on it. The company I just left built many, many rich complex apps for the healthcare industry. It's a very viable mobile middleware development environment. Can you name another mobile middleware provider that is doing well today? Most of them have went out of business or been purchased by the big players.

Just a few thoughts.

RE: AvantGo is dead.

The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/21/2004 1:54:02 PM #

1) I beg to differ. NetFront is the only browser that seems to be going anywhere on PalmOS. AvantGo is a pathetic browser.

2) I don't have numbers, so I can't tell if you're right. But in 2001, AvantGo was dominant and I agree, even casual users were often aware of it. In 2004, realtime browsers + Wi-Fi/Bluetooth is "where it's at".

3) I've followed AvantGo for years. If you saw how they kept hemorrhaging money (leeched from venture capital and IPO) and downsizing staff year after year, you'd see what I was talking about. AvantGo's SEC filings reflected a story typical of the dotcom bust. (Ever seen the movie "Startup.com"? A lot of parallels with AvantGo.) Sybase paid around $38 million for AvantGo a couple years ago and probably will never make that money back. The fact that AvantGo has a new Sugar Daddy to prop them up for a while longer doesn't change anything - their business model STILL sucks. Wi-Fi and always-on connectivity are the future.
It's interesting that you use the term "mobile middleware market" - not exactly a term used by those other than investors or people working in that particular industry. Hmmmmmm...

AvantGo NEVER made a profit - it lost $56 million (2001), $50 million (2000), 9 million (1998), 2 million (1998). I couldn't find the figures for 2002, but I think it was their worst year.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1110700/000089155402001819/d50108_10-k.txt

4) For the past four years AvantGo has been saying that their future is in providing solutions to businesses. I suspect that was their goal from the beginning. The company did manage to land one big contract (McKesson - in the healthcare services field), but they were never able to sustain that business model. Now that Wi-Fi is prevalent in businesses, I'd be shocked to see AvantGo succeed in 2005. Why download old info when with WiFi you have near-instantaneous access to the freshest info available?

Here's some interesting posts on AvantGo's woeful tale:

http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=2988
http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=3243
http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=7140

******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

RE: AvantGo is dead.

killah fury @ 11/21/2004 2:43:06 PM #

AvantGo is brilliant. I've used it almost every day for the past 6 years.

RE: AvantGo is dead.

T. @ 11/21/2004 10:36:45 PM #

I have sporadic access to wireless throughout the day and Avantgo fills my needs nicely. I can get a bunch of info all at once and then access it later when I get the chance out of Wifi range. Occasionally I want more up to date info and I bluetooth to the web over my cell.

A lot of sites that I used to access have abandoned Avantgo but I have had no trouble finding better replacements.

I hope they stay around because for me they are very useful. I am way too busy to surf the web looking for the info I want and I get quickly in a single sync. I would even pay for the service if I had to.

RE: AvantGo is dead.

Strider_mt2k @ 11/22/2004 7:13:22 AM #

While WiFI and BT have indeed lessened the need for many folks to use AvantGo, the service itself is still pretty cool for those folks that aren't running the latest nerd-pacifier.

As far as the business end goes, I don't know if users on this site could neccessarily give a crap.

I'm fairly certain that for most of us it's about what hardware/spftware works and doesn't work on our handhelds for us.

Well....

nygman @ 11/20/2004 2:12:36 PM #

They have a new client in beta, that, while a bit slow to load the homepage on my T3, is a much needed improvement, you should check it out. I live in NYC and find it great to sync pages before I leave home. I find the BT great for that, as I have BT on my home computer. Then when I am out, I can do a quick update using my BT phone. This way, I can always read the latest news, down in the subway, were there is no WiFi. And it is also great for the W/C :) This software allows you to sync once, and then have that info available even when you don't have a signal. I think it is quite useful, and I wish them a Happy 1,000,000,000 Sync.

RE: Well....

T. @ 11/21/2004 10:44:29 PM #

Thanks for the info on the beta, I guess I have to pay better attention. A little slower here too (T3) but in general MUCH better. Finally it uses the full screen.

First this, First that...

SelonPi @ 11/21/2004 11:11:48 PM #

DEAD LAST to support modern resolution (320x480). How could they possibly keep avoiding this?! I've read though tons of threads stating that a specific version of their client will do "high: res with add-in programs, but they deny every allowing this resolution. A previous user mentioned a new slower client? Another "first". First to have people actually die while waiting to synch up a couple KB of text pages... Here's my email response from them:

Issue Description:
I have read a few messages in forums stating that the Avantgo client version 5.3b66 will allow full screen utilization on the Palm Tungsten T3, but can't locate the install anywhere. Do you have it available for download?
{cut}

Hi there,

What you have seen is incorrect unless someone has added some extra code to our client.

Regards,
Lana
AvantGo Support