Could Tweakker’s app drive down the cost of smartphones?

The price of next generation smartphones could drop as a result of its device connectivity technology being granted a worldwide patent, according to a Danish start-up called Tweakker. 

If device manufacturers simply embedded its app into their handsets, they would no longer need to build different models with different network settings for different markets and networks. And that simple fact alone would simplify the manufacturing and distribution process and drive down the cost of manufacture.

Currently, when smartphones are shipped to distributors such as the Carphone Warehouse or Brightstar with the wrong network settings ... APN (Access Point Names) ... they get returned. And that means additional engineering and distribution costs to smartphone manufacturers in sorting the problem. These persistent failure costs are then built into the cost of devices that eventually do pass distributor and mobile network operator tests. Hence the current high cost of a smartphone.

The good news for the consumer is this could be set to change. If all new devices including iPhones that operate on low cost service providers have Tweakker’s app embedded into them, then configuration failure costs would drop dramatically and quite conceivably cease to exist. It would not matter what country you are in, or what network you are using, Tweakker’s unique connectivity technology instantly configures the APN settings on your smartphone from power-up.

Therefore, manufacturers no longer have to worry about configuring different settings for different operators, as Tweakker would do this for them... automatically. This means one production line for a specific model for the world market – saving manufacturers millions of USD in the process and almost certainly driving down the price of the smartphone on the high street.

This also applies to bring-your-own-devices (BYOD) that are now beginning to flood the networks and the rapid development of virtual network operator networks (MVNOs) being hosted by network operators such as AT&T.

If a smartphone is Tweakker-enabled, users will be able to connect to Facebook and Twitter or over-the-top services like Skype, Whatsapp or Viber hassle free from power up. Users will also never have to contact care centres again to configure network settings.

Tweakker’s unique technology took three years to develop and has already been tested by 1 million Android users, and more than 4 million connections have now been made via the app.

Tweakker’s unique technology covers next generation devices to be used in the networks of 1,500 operators worldwide, provides over 4,000 unique APN settings and is available as a plug and play application.

Tweakker’s technology could become a standard connector of the Internet of all things where not only mobile phones need connectivity but also mobile objects such as the connected car and the connected body. These predominantly mobile machine-to-machine objects will need mobile data connectivity to be part of the Internet of Things.

So, is it time for smartphone manufacturers to embed Tweakker’s app and bring about the “one low-cost smartphone connected world?” Another 1 billion devices will hit the networks by end 2014.