SCO unveils group data services for smart phones

The SCO Group has unveiled a mobile digital service that lets handheld devices distribute voice and text messages to groups and individuals, as well as record and display real-time research data.

The service, branded Me Inc., works with smart phones and other mobile devices to integrate them with back-end resources. SCO's new service comes at a time when shipments of PDAs are reaching record levels.

With a Me Inc. subscription, the Unix software maker lets people share voice or text messages with individuals or groups of any size, as well as plan projects, delegate tasks and track the progress of work.

The service is also designed to let people record and display real-time research data for projects such as opinion polls. In addition, it lets people create groups with multimedia profiles from existing directories or from their mobile service.

SCO expects to begin selling the service next month via resellers and through its own website. Prices have not been released yet.

The service is designed to work with smart handheld devices, such as the Palm Treo. In the near future, SCO expects to add devices such as Research In Motion's BlackBerry and devices that run on the Microsoft Windows Mobile and the Symbian operating systems.

Utah State University recently used a Me Inc. multimedia feature called Shout to alert the school's sports booster organisation to a game cancellation when Hurricane Katrina prevented the Louisiana-based Nicholls State University team from coming to Utah.

Tom Hale, executive director of Utah State's Big Blue booster programme, said in SCO's statement: "Using Shout, I was able to inform hundreds of USU boosters of our game cancellation with a simple 12-second audio message from my Treo."

Market researcher Gartner recently issued a report that PDA shipments reached 3.6 million units in the second quarter, up 32 per cent from the same period a year ago. Gartner forecasts that a total of 15 million units are on track to ship by the year's end, surpassing a previous record of 13.2 million in 2001.

Dawn Kawamoto writes for CNET News.com