Zumobi was known as "ZenZui" when the product and the company of the same name were spun off from Microsoft in March 2007. Zumobi the product was subsequently released as a public beta in December.

Zumobi is positioned as an alternative to traditional Web browsers for mobile phones. It aims to help mobile phone and device users discover and consume Web-based content.

The Zumobi interface displays up to 16 different "tiles" per screen, allowing users to "snack on content," according to the company. Users determine what site appears in each tile, and they can send tiles to each other.


A collection of Zumobi "tiles"
Zumobi says its back-end servers are constantly updating the websites associated with the content behind each tile. This means that sites load instantly, the company claims, and can be used even when wireless coverage is lacking.


Zumobi's servers send website information to phones continuously
According to Zumobi, its user interface is based on many years of human-computer interaction (HCI) research. The UI reportedly adjusts to different devices and modalities, such as portrait, landscape, numeric keypad, touchscreen, mini-QWERTY, or traditional up/down/left/right navigational controls.

The software and underlying service will be advertising-supported and remain free to the user, the company says. More than 75 tiles will reportedly be available, many from Zumobi launch partners such as Amazon.com, MTV Networks, The Associated Press, AccuWeather.com, Traffic.com, and FlightStats.com.

Availability

Microsoft has not announced whether Zumobi will be preloaded on Windows Mobile phones or merely shipped on disk with them. However the beta version is available now from Zumobi's website, here. Those who wish to participate in the beta test need to have a data plan, and unlimited data plans are strongly recommended.

Pledging to offer "an open, device-neutral platform for building and deploying rich content for mobile phones," Zumobi has also released a beta version of its SDK. This will allow developers to create their own tiles, which they can upload to the "Zumobi Gallery" during the first quarter of this year, according to the company. The SDK can be downloaded from the company's developer site, here.

In the second quarter of 2008, Zumobi says, beta versions for BlackBerry and selected J2ME implementations will be available.

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