DeviceAnywhere lets devs play with 500 phones over the net

by Nilay Patel posted Oct 19th 2007 at 3:24PM

In one of the more impressive Frankenphone installations we've ever seen, a company called Mobile Complete has been operating a remote phone-testing service called DeviceAnywhere that allows mobile phone developers to test out their apps on any of their choice of over 500 different phone models. The phones are opened up and have their circuits wired directly into a server, so devs have access to every part of the device, just as if they were physically present. CEO Faraz Syed says that the networked handsets are "surprisingly reliable and robust, even though they look like we've cut them open and killed them." According to the company, all the major carriers and several large content providers are customers, and only Nokia offers a similar testing suite -- and it's not as robust. Too bad the service starts at $200 and runs from $17 an hour up -- we'd love to spend a couple hours fooling around.

Filed under: Handsets

Tags: development, device anywhere, DeviceAnywhere, mobile complete, MobileComplete, testing

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Sean Berner @ Oct 19th 2007 4:09PM

We use them for testing and it's pretty handy. Bit pricey but where else can you test on all different kinds of handsets so easily....

Neutral

PEZ @ Oct 19th 2007 5:01PM

""Too bad the service starts at $200 and runs from $17 an hour up -- we'd love to spend a couple hours fooling around.""

Somehow I get the feeling you guys wouldnt know what the hell you were doing.

Neutral

JohnS @ Oct 21st 2007 2:26AM

$200 is for the first carrier (e.g., Verizon) and includes 10 hours of usage. Additional carriers (e.g., AT&T) cost $100 to add but, unfortunately, do not increase your included 'airtime'. True it's pricey but I guess someone has to pay the bills for all those frankenphones.

Neutral

ThePhwner @ Oct 22nd 2007 9:04AM

The price is definitely an issue, as is the availability. We power mobile storefronts for many of the major carriers and media outlets in the US, and often times, its critical to have these devices on-hand. A good solution for app development, so long as you're patient :)