Sprint announced on Wednesday that they’ve formed a new partnership with Chinese mobile powerhouse NQ Mobile.
At CES NQ Mobile was showing off a new product called NQ Live, drawing from the companies solid background in the mobile industry. NQ Live software is an interactive home screen replacement that allows users to get immersed in the things that matter to them. The always on replacement acts like a custom skin. NQ Mobile will work with top tier content providers to bring relevant, data that the user/customer wants, right to their fingertips.
Whether it be an experience wrapped around a favorite sports team or a new movie, NQ Live will redefine the first interaction point on a customers handset but it’s not to be confused with a launcher, app store or live wall paper.
NQ Live is a more immersive experience delivering content and functionality to the homescreen tailored to the brands that the user/customer follows or the news they need.
NQ Mobile’s Chief Commercial Officer and President of International Activities, Gavin Kim, is spearheading the NQ Live effort. Kim is no stranger to the smartphone world or the homescreen. While with Samsung Mobile Kim oversaw the various hub efforts that made the Galaxy S line incredibly popular over the years. He was also instrumental in the earliest iterations of Windows Phone.
The partnership between NQ Mobile and Sprint, for their Sprint ID product is only natural. Sprint ID custom tailors a smartphone’s experience around a user’s interest, for example a Nascar Sprint ID pack will include all of Sprint’s Nascar apps, customized graphics and other features tied to Nascar. Now, that experience will take the user in even further with the NQ Live experience.
“We look forward to working with NQ Mobile to launch Sprint Live as the next generation Sprint ID experience and to take our current offering to an entirely new level,” said David Owens, Head of Product, Sprint. “Sprint is also eager to collaborate with NQ Mobile to cultivate an NQ Live ecosystem of leading app developers, advertisers and content providers to constantly expand the consumer’s experience and ability to customize their devices.”
What will further solidify the experience is the fact that Kim, along with NQ Mobile Co-CEO Omar Khan, were at Samsung Mobile when SprintID was originally released and instrumental in bringing the first Sprint ID devices to market including the Samsung Epic 4G Slide, and the Samsung Transform.
“We are pleased to provide Sprint the ability to give their customers a more interactive, informative and immersive mobile experience,” Kim said in a statement.
