Wireless technology company, Leaf Wireless has announced that it will be offering the Whisper API (Application Programming Interface) free for download to all developers.
Quinton Leigh, managing director of Leaf Wireless, says: "We have taken a deliberate step with this announcement, to encourage and make it easier for developers to build instant messaging and mobile solutions into their networks. The main reason we have gone down the route of giving Whisper away for free, is so that we can make the lives of the developers a little easier."
Whisper is an API which provides developers a tool to patch their programs straight into the Leaf Wireless GSM gateway. The gateway boasts bio-directional interoperability with all three of the mobile telecommunications operators.
According to Cyril Belikoff, telecommunications and industry manager at Microsoft SA: "Leaf Wireless has proved yet again that they are committed to furthering and enhancing the use of mobile computing in the local market. At Microsoft, we believe it is through joint relationships with companies like Leaf, and what we are doing with Whisper, that we can help build sustainable home-grown computing off standards-based platforms like our own."
The benefit to an organisation looking at deploying Whisper on its network is that it can cheaply and effectively communicate, over the Internet, with employees and customers through the cost-effective use of SMS.
Leigh adds: "Whisper is available free for download on our Web site at www.whisper.co.za and allows the developer to hook straight into an active gateway. In addition to the free download of the application, we will also be offering ongoing support and technical guidelines to users by way of forums, FAQs and case studies on the Web site. The only cost involved at any point of the process is that of the SMS."
Purchasing SMSs has also been made simpler by Leaf Wireless; the company is offering the service on the same Web site and users can purchase these through a simple credit card transaction. Users will also be alerted as to when these are about to run out so that they can proactively top up when necessary.
SMS communicating and instant messaging through the Leaf Gateway can also be monitored and each user can be assigned a certain number of credits per month, all through Whisper. Although Whisper API is offered independently, it has the ability to work seamlessly with Microsoft Visual Studio for easy integration into existing Microsoft and alternative programming languages.
"Some of the benefits associated to Whisper include the enhancement of one`s current products and in some instance the lengthening of the product lifecycle, easy integration fully equipped with support, and access to messaging - one of the simplest, fastest and most cost-efficient ways of communicating with people inside and outside of one`s organisation," adds Leigh.
Whisper is by no means an experimental tool, although Leaf Wireless encourages developers to experiment with it, it is a fully functional, actively used API which has been deployed by a number of organisations countrywide.
Concludes Leigh: "Whisper is the first phase of a number of initiatives we are hoping to roll-out to the developer community, and the simple reason as stated prior is to encourage the use of mobile and wireless communications within the workplace."
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Leaf Wireless, based in Johannesburg, is a global convergence technology company. The company currently develops and maintains fully integrated end-to-end mobile solutions and services which include context-based applications, platform design, hosting and mobile media content creation. Leaf Wireless is a company which leads through innovation and it is with this that it is able to deliver solutions which provide key customer retention strategies, excellent return on investment - while at the same time enhancing the life of the client`s extended customer community.
Founded in 1999, Leaf Wireless continues to deliver products, solutions and strategies and its client base extends all vertical markets as well as some of SA`s most respected corporate, media and entertainment organisations.
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