Flexion expanded globally for Android – first launch with device manufacturer

BARCELONA & LONDON, 16th February 2010 – Accumulate UK Limited (www.accumulategroup.com), the company that provides flexible pricing and retailing solutions for mobile services, today announced that it is extending all features within its Flexion platform to Android. This includes the Flexion wrapper, making Accumulate the first service provider in the market to provide industrialised wrapping of Android games and applications.  Sony Ericsson will be the first device manufacturer to use the Flexion wrapper on its Android devices. Other existing Accumulate customers, such as Orange Group, Hutchison 3G and Telefonica O2, already plan to roll out the service on their upcoming Android devices.

Flexion gives operators, device manufacturers, retailers and publishers the ability to maximise distribution, penetration and ARPU from mobile games and apps. This is achieved through features such as in-application billing, Try and Buy, flexible pricing models and on-device retailing. Flexion also provides the ability to preload games and applications with ease. Once present on a device – be that through download or preload – any Flexion enabled game or application will include a fully dynamic shop front allowing for further up-selling of content. 

Android content is wrapped within matter of minutes and enabling the content requires little or no additional resource from the retailing partner. The Flexion wrapper comes with support for direct operator billing, premium SMS billing and credit card, something that has been missing for Android until now. Try and Buy and flexible pricing options will also help to maximise uptake.

As an added bonus, the Android wrapper acts as improved DRM offering protection above and beyond what is available by default in the Android platform. The combination of in-wrapper DRM and connected elements ties games or apps tightly to a device or end-user, effectively eliminating the negative impacts of rooting or pirated distribution.

“Over the last three years Flexion has helped our customers increase revenue from Java games and applications through flexible pricing options, preloads and on-device retailing,” said Jens Lauritzson, MD Accumulate. “Android is a key focus area for the industry in general. Providing our customers with the ability to combine the rich gaming and apps experiences offered by Android with our market leading pricing and retailing solutions was a natural next step for us and we look forward to help grow the market further. ”