Microsoft OneApp

What is it?

OneApp is a software package developed by Microsoft that aims at running on most mobile phones. One App will weigh only 150kb and will run on any JAVA compatible phone. Of course, an internet connection is essential! luckily a GPRS connection will largely suffice, and a 3G connection will be kinda super smooth!

Why?

Other giants of the mobile computing world are developing new and very powerful technologies constantly, but Microsoft OneApp aims those people who already have a ‘not-so-smart’ phone. OneApp, will include services that enables you to connect to Twitter, Facebook, Windows Live Messenger , Multiplayer Games amongst others that people use on a daily basis. Microsoft is targeting mostly Emerging Countries with this software package

Developers

Just like most new services that work with the cloud, OneApp with provide a developers kit and is said to support classic XML and JavaScript. Eventually, users can expect many more applications apart from the native ones. This kit will be available by the end of 2009.

You want it?

Unfortunately(for those who like to experiment), OneApp is currently only available in South Africa and will launch in other countries next year(The names of the country are not yet revealed. But there are high probabilities that Mauritius might be somewhere at the top of the list. NB: To use one app, most likely the services provider must support it. Here’s an official extract :

At present, OneApp is available in South Africa through Blue Label Telecoms and their mibli service. Microsoft plans to launch OneApp in more countries within the next year.

A Quick Demo

OneApp front-end

Facebook

I think the Facebook App is really pretty! Nice interface!

Twitter

TweetLite will be the default Twitter Client in OneApp. First thing  i can say., its really ugly! But the good news is that famous twitter client developers such as TweetDeck etc.. might use the DevToolkit to make a better client on OneApp.

Mauritians…? ki pu fer ar sa?

Why should you use it? Don’t you already have most of these applications on your phone?  Well, the main reason is that its very light! and free! The data transfers are optimized, hence not eating up all your credit quickly.

Personally, i have high expectations from OneApp, and i hope that it will pair with one of the Mauritians mobile service provider soon to offer these services.

You can test the Demo here.