Review: SPB Online

SPB has been one of the major players in the Windows Mobile software market for a number of years. Their Mobile Shell is one of our favorites here at WMExperts and is on our list of must have software.

A software based content portal seems to be a holy grail of sorts for several large players in the technology world. Yahoo has attempted it with their Yahoo Go application and one of the major draws of Apple Computer’s iPhone is the App Store along with the ability to get at content from popular sites like YouTube. SPB is making an attempt at the content portal niche with SPB Online (see our post about the announcement here). SPB is aiming for a higher standard with SPB Online than any of the other content portals have been able to attain.

SPB Online was originally targeted at mobile providers (particular those with 3G networks), but is now available to end users as well. SPB states that mobile providers would be able to provide custom, branded content as well as a customized user interface.

As a content portal, SPB Online provides access to TV, radio, news (through RSS feeds), weather and various downloads through a single interface. SPB is seeking to make use of the 3G networks that are becoming more and more prolific.

Interface

SPB Online’s main screen contains buttons linking to the different types of content. Animated 3D transitions throughout the application lend to a snappy look that doesn’t detract from the content. All of the buttons are large enough that they can be activated with a finger as easily as a stylus.

TV

Several developers have attempted the mobile TV thing different ways. SPB Online uses “breakthrough patent-pending TV technology” to stream television to your mobile device. An integrated TV guide and picture in picture add functionality and usability. The list available TV channels are rather short (around 16), with many of the channels being foreign (there are 10 English channels, 4 Russian, 1 French and 1 German). There is no functionality to add channels of any kind. Playback is worthless without a 3G or Wi-Fi connection of some sort.

Radio

SPB offers a very simplistic implementation of Internet Radio. The main screen of the Radio module shows a list of your favorite stations. New stations can be added either from the provided list of available stations or just through a URL.

News

As previously mentioned, the News module of SPB Online is simply an RSS feed reader. As with the other applications, the interface is very finger friendly. Links to the different feeds and news items are large and scrolling is managed with a drag of the finger.

Weather

No portal would be complete without including access to Weather information. SPB Online’s Weather module allows for you to add multiple cities and view detailed information regarding what the weather is going to be like during different parts of the day (morning, day, evening, night).

Shop

SPB Online’s Shop module is similar to the iPhone App Store in that it allows you to shop for Programs, Ringtones and Themes right from your mobile device. Most of the Programs and Themes that are available at the moment are from SPB directly. Considering the size of SPB’s offerings that’s not as bad as it sounds. Everything from SPB Finance to SPB Mobile Shell are available to be downloaded and installed directly from your phone.

Games

The Shop module enables you to purchase, download and install games to your phone and offers a selection of free Internet based games (like Checkers and Reversi) are available as well.

Conclusion

Like the maturation of the Internet, and the proliferation of bandwidth intensive online multimedia applications like YouTube and even iTunes, the mobile (and Windows Mobile in particular) marketplace will become more and more web enabled. SPB’s targeting of mobile providers is a brilliant play and will more than likely enable improved media services to Windows Mobile based devices.

I would have loved to see some additional functionality for the user to customize the content and the way it is displayed. The areas that I see the most room for improvement are TV, Radio and News. With the TV module I would like to see the ability to get an updated list of channels, or even to subscribe to additional premium channels for a price. With the radio I would have liked to see some way to organize or browse my favorites instead of just a flat list. My wish list for the News module is similar to radio, it would be nice to be add some kind of logical order to the articles.

If anyone can come out on top in the software based Content Portal game, it’s SPB. The applications that they develop are generally well liked and supported. From an end-user point of view though, I don’t know if the $29.95 price is worth it. SPB has built a solid contender in the content portal arena, but the channel selections on the TV module are limited. I see the TV module as SPB’s biggest selling point, but also it is the most glaring weakness. In my opinion the best parts of this application are the radio, news and weather; all of which are available with better (and cheaper) applications. If SPB Online came bundled with a new phone I could see using it, particularly if it came with additional content available, but I can’t justify purchasing it outright.