Sybase sees sales in iPhone, Android

Sybase Inc.'s mobile-software sales will grow 10 percent to 15 percent annually as more businesses use Apple Inc.'s iPhones and Google Inc.'s Android for corporate tasks, Chief Executive Officer John Chen said.
##CONTINUE##
Companies are seeking ways to manage iPhones and Android devices — on top of the BlackBerry phones they were already using, he said. That's fueling demand for Dublin-based Sybase's mobile software, which can coordinate phone applications and messages.

"There's a big sea change out there," Chen, 53, said in an interview. "The iPhone and the Google Android opened the eyes of enterprises, who said they have to manage all of these devices on one platform collectively with one interface. That's what we do."

Chen has used acquisitions to add mobile software over the past decade, expanding beyond Sybase's original focus of database programs. The company paid $425 million in 2006 to acquire Mobile 365, now called Sybase 365, gaining software that lets customers send and manage text messages.

Another software line, iAnywhere, helps businesses create mobile applications, manage different e-mail and instant-message systems, and synchronize their devices.

It also lets customers disconnect a device remotely — for example, if an employee loses a phone. Companies using both Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry and the iPhone can't do all that without Sybase's help, Chen said.

"If you say I need to kill a device, it doesn't matter if it's an iPhone, or if you changed to an iPhone from a BlackBerry," he said.

"The iPhone and RIM don't talk by design. I do the talking."

Apple added business features to its iPhone last June, an effort to woo BlackBerry customers.

The updated software made it easier to get their corporate e-mail on the phone.

Google's Android operating system runs on HTC Corp.'s G1 phone, which debuted in October.

Google developed Android as an open system, meaning that developers can add to the software.

"The iPhones and Android are really, really opening business," Chen said. "Android is yet to come, but it's certainly opened a lot of discussions."

Sybase reported $356.8 million in mobile-software sales last year, about 30 percent of total revenue. Chen expects those sales to reach $400 million this year.

Most of the growth is coming from Sybase's messaging business, he said.

Sybase dropped 17 cents to $33.64 Tuesday. The shares have climbed 36 percent this year.

-----------------------------
BY N/A
Source：BLOOMBERG NEWS