It’s hard to get excited about feature phones with 320 x 240 resolution, but Shioupyn Shen thinks precisely such devices are about to bring millions of people to the web in a new way.
Shen is CEO of CloudMosa – a developer that for over a decade has offered a remote browser named Puffin. Remote browsers see devices connect to a browser running in the cloud rather than taxing the processing power of the local device. AWS and Cloudflare both offer remote browsers, and suggest they’re a fine way to make web surfing – and SaaS services – more secure and manageable. Among other protections, they prevent copy and paste from browsers, disable uploads and downloads, and prevent malware from reaching a user’s device.
CloudMosa has offered its own remote browser since 2010, and in 2020 Shen began to wonder if it could be used to stream websites into feature phones. And if so, how?
His interest in doing so stems from the fact that smartphones remain out of reach for hundreds of millions of people who lack the financial resources to acquire them or live in places where network coverage is scarce or spotty. Shen felt that feature phones could be in demand for many people, but also realized they don’t do what people want: namely, provide access to the web.
His answer is Cloud Phone – a service that sees CloudMosa host browsers and install a proprietary thin client on compatible feature phones that carriers provide to their customers. That client is lightweight, because it’s designed to access just one app – the hosted browser – and to use a feature phone’s physical keypad to navigate the web.
CloudMosa has created a developer program, offering resources to help coders prepare a website to run on its hosted browsers and stream at feature phone size. More on that later.
The Cloud Phone UI – Click to enlarge
Shen told The Register 4G feature phones have until recently used the QQVGA standard for their displays – meaning developers only had 160 x 120 pixels to work with. QVGA jumps to 320 x 240 resolution, which he believes makes accessing the web on a feature phone at least a little bit more appealing.
Shen said carriers have already signed up in countries including Vietnam, and that one million Cloud Phone users already access the service from 90 countries – using 40 models of handset compatible with the service. Chinese handset makers HMD and Itel are also on board.
The CEO is courting more manufacturers and carriers. He is optimistic interest will increase among the latter, thanks to increasing use of QVGA – making Cloud Phone more obviously attractive.
Shen also admits this plan won’t be easy, if only because handset-makers don’t prioritize feature phones.
“Devices sell out when they hit the channel,” he told The Register. “We want a batch every month instead of sporadic supply.” Without a steady stream of devices reaching the market, he fears carriers won’t be able to satisfy demand.
Shen also wants makers of 4G phones to improve quality. He observes that plenty of the lower-cost handsets ship with faulty flash memory – some of it re-used from other devices.
For Cloud Phone to succeed, developers will also need to come on board.
When CloudMosa sells to carriers, they sometimes use the tools it provides – which are based on HTML, CSS and JavaScript – to create web apps for popular local sites so they can be consumed on the Cloud Phone platform. CloudMosa has kickstarted the process by creating web apps for sites it expects will be popular – sometimes without permission from their publishers.
Shen told The Register he hopes that as Cloud Phone becomes more popular, publishers will create official versions of web apps for their sites. He also hopes that third party developers will target the platform.
CloudMosa is not the only entrepreneur trying this idea. In India – a market Shen thinks will be receptive to his plans – dominant carrier Jio offers the ₹1799 ($21) 4G JioBharat J1, which boasts a QVGA screen and an accompanying ₹895 ($10) annual plan covering data and streaming services.
Providing an as-a-service alternative to a popular product is not a new tactic among vendors who target telcos. And 4G phones are already enjoying a modest resurgence in nations like Vietnam that have recently turned off their 2G networks – creating demand for more modern handsets.
So perhaps CloudMosa and Cloud Phone have a shot at giving the 4G feature phone a new lease on life – for a while, at least. ®
