Stellenbosch-based Clockspeed is releasing version 3 of its MXIT solution at the end of the month, giving users the ability to send pictures, read news and receive traffic reports via a downloaded instant messaging (IM) client.
The MXIT client is free and used mainly on cellphones, but can also be accessed on a PC. IM clients use GPRS and the user therefore pays only for the bytes used in sending and receiving messages, says Herman Heunis, Clockspeed CEO.
MXIT is the only free service of its kind available locally and competes for the IM market with some subscription-based services, he says.
Data is charged for in units of Moola, with the cost of a message being one Moola (valued at 2c), compared to SMS which costs about 70c a message, he says.
"The Moola was created to start our own economy," says Heunis. "There is broad client base overseas, in countries like Saudi Arabia and India, and the Moola sets a standard rate that is unaffected by exchange rates or location."
MXIT has attracted 430 000 registered users to date with roughly only 20 000 of these users abroad, says Heunis. Almost 94% are in the 13 to 25 year age bracket, he says.
Besides chatting to other MXIT users, the client also allows connections to MSN messenger, Yahoo, ICQ, AOL messenger or Jabber communities.
"We will also be able to do polls with this interface and are planning a questionnaire to ask the youth of our country what they think of certain topics," he says.
The service is compatible with about 100 handsets models, but Heunis says Clockspeed is expanding the service to be compatible with more cellphones.
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