January 17th, 2007 - Spb Software House, the leading Pocket PC software developer, announces a new website called Spb Club (
www.spbclub.com). The idea of this website is to provide Pocket PC users with quality content they can use to empower and personalize their Pocket PC:
* Programs
* Games
* Free ringtones
* Free Pocket PC themes
* Free SMS-tones
* Free skins
* Free UniThemes
* Free tips & tricks
* And information about Pocket PC accessories
With Spb Club Spb Software House also officially opens its support forums. Spb customers can get 24x7 technical support through the support forums and get answers from community members and Spb employees. More than 15,000 Pocket PC users have already joined the community in just the few months the website was in beta testing. All Spb beta programs have also been moved to Spb Club. Localized into 14 languages, Spb Club is free for both Spb customers and other Pocket PC users.
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Spb Software House is known for providing a wide range of quality Pocket PC programs, each of which is a best selling program in its corresponding category (according to Handango January 2007 report). Thus Spb provides:
* Spb Pocket Plus - the best selling Pocket PC utility
* Spb Backup - the best selling Pocket PC backup program
* Spb Diary - the best selling PIM Today plug-in
* Spb Mobile DVD - the best selling DVD converter
* Spb Time - the best selling clock program for Pocket PC
* Spb Finance - the best selling Pocket PC finance program
* Spb Weather - the best selling weather forecast program
* Spb Full Screen Keyboard - the best selling software keyboard
* more programs in Top100 of Pocket PC programs
But besides programs Pocket PC users need other content to customize their devices: ringtones, themes, skins, SMS-tones, etc. The goal of Spb Club is to provide all such content as a complete solution for Pocket PC users to find everything they need for their PDAs.
Ringtones and SMS-Tones
The currently existing teen-age-style ringtones scattered up and down the Internet would hardly satisfy the needs of an average Pocket PC user, who according to the last Pocket PC Survey, is a 33 year-old professional. What ringtone could be installed on a lawyer's or doctors' or engineer's Pocket PC? These people do expect a certain level of quality from ringtones, and most of the existing "fancy" ringtones are just inappropriate for them. How has Spb managed to create a collection of ringtones optimized for WM users? Five professional musicians and DJs created 400 different ringtones, only 150 of which were selected by Spb's professionals. And then there was a large vote among 500 real Pocket PC users in several countries, which resulted in 40 ringtones approved by these people. This distilled collection of ringtones is available at Spb Club right now. In the same way, Spb created a collection of SMS-tones, which resulted out of the same importance we give to our Pocket PC!
users.
*** Themes ***
There are similar issues with the existing Pocket PC theme collections. Almost all existing theme collections are submitted by regular users and the usability of most of them is questionable. Creating a professional Pocket PC theme that would not only be beautiful but would also have good usability and support all kinds of devices needs a specific skillset. Most users use their Windows Mobile devices primarily for business, so the fact that a theme is beautiful is a bad reason to have unreadable appointment text. The Spb Software House design team had the challenging task of creating a collection of professional Pocket PC themes in a way that every theme would provide good usability and support for all devices and with all screen resolutions. All these themes are available as free downloads to registered Spb Club members.
*** Skins and UniThemes ***
Many Pocket PC programs are skinnable, including Windows Media Player, Calculator and Dialer. And many Pocket PC users would like to customize their devices by skinning these programs. Spb Club provides a collection of skins for these standard and many of Spb programs. Users can also download skin sets called UniThemes. UniThemes give a consistent look-and-feel to all standard Pocket PC applications as well as to the popular Spb programs. Each UniTheme includes skins for all of the standard skinnable Pocket PC applications (the Today screen, Windows Media Player, Dialer, and Calculator) as well as skins for all of Spb's skinnable bestselling applications (Spb Pocket Plus, Spb Time, Spb Weather, Spb GPRS Monitor, Spb Finance, and Spb Full Screen Keyboard).
*** Tips & Tricks ***
Windows Mobile is a powerful operating system that provides a ton of features. Many new Pocket PC users do not use all the power of the built-in Pocket PC programs, and are completely unaware of the many useful things their Pocket PC's can do for them. That's why Spb Club includes more than 200 tips and tricks of how to use your Pocket PC, written by 10 professional authors of books and websites about Pocket PCs.
*** Localization ***
Spb Club website is localized into 14 languages. Localization is an important part of a long-term Spb strategy. Providing quality content is not possible without providing it in the native languages. This is especially true when working together with OEMs and mobile operators to provide quality content for new users who just bought their first device.
** Further Information **
Spb Club website:
http://www.spbclub.com
Free Spb Club registration:
http://www.spbclub.com/register.php
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