Xpressmo, a publishing and platform provider for mobile devices, will showcase its new Surfmo consumer portal application on the online demo platform of Mpowerplayer, a provider of online mobile application trial and merchandising services.

Surfmo is a mash-up application that incorporates weather, news, sports, movies and music as a unified experience. Mpowerplayer will make Surfmo available to online consumers wanting to try out Surfmo before they buy.

"We're always looking for strategic partnerships to help grow awareness and showcase our technology," said Joe Ariganello, vice president of business development for Mpowerplayer, Ashburn, VA. "Xpressmo's Surfmo application is a great application to highlight the capabilities of our platform and is a way for us to showcase our technology outside of the realm of mobile games.

"The elements of Surfmo really show how a user can fully experience the advanced features of a mobile application in an online, friendly environment," he said.

Mpowerplayer's other clients include Sprint, EA Mobile and Sega Mobile.

Mpowerplayer's technology is licensed by major wireless carriers and mobile game and application publishers to power mobile game demos on their online storefronts.

"The biggest challenge that we address for our partners is the issue of discovery," Mr. Ariganello said. "Mobile content, particularly games, suffers from a discovery challenge, which makes it difficult to bring in new users.

"Using Mpowerplayer, our partners can build an online storefront, easily accessible to anyone with a Web browser, in order to attract new users and tap demographics that would be very difficult to reach without," he said.

"Additionally, Mpowerplayer is unique in that our technology allows consumers to try mobile applications before they buy."

Mpowerplayer's core audience is mobile content providers, which includes wireless carriers, mobile game and application publishers and network operators.

"Anyone looking to make their mobile content more accessible can benefit from integrating Mpowerplayer's technology into their operations," Mr. Ariganello said.

The company's technology is also demonstrated through the Mplayit Mobile Arcade application on both the Facebook and MySpace platforms.

Mplayit Mobile Arcade lets consumers play and share mobile games before making the commitment to buy. It is available through a standalone consumer portal as well.

The SurfMo application is built on Xpressmo's publishing platform, CDER. It combines Google Search, MapQuest, AccuWeather, as well as news and music drawn from a variety of sources.

The beta version is available for free on the Facebook platform and the Xpressmo Web site.

Future updated versions of the application will include content and widgets from music artists and television stations.

The Surfmo demo application, powered by Mpowerplayer, can now be previewed online in its entirety from the Xpressmo Web site.

Mpowerplayer is a consumer destination for online demos of mobile games.

The company's proprietary software enables mobile content providers to merchandize, market and interact with a targeted audience of mobile consumers.

Mpowerplayer is is backed by New Atlantic Ventures.

Express Mobile Inc., or Xpressmo, is a downloadable mobile applications provider. Its publishing platform enables the design and deployment of rich connected applications.

The CDER platform lets content owners respond to customer market demands and deliver mash-ups of their content and prevailing Web services.

Express Mobile was found in 2006 and is privately funded through angel investors.

Mpowerplayer credits Apple's iPhone with the surge in mobile applications' popularity.

"Mobile applications are booming, both in terms of exposure and focus, thanks in large part to Apple's App Store," Mr. Ariganello said. "There's more awareness than ever before about what your mobile device can do for you, and as a result, consumers are looking for their phones to help them more with their daily tasks and provide a solid source of entertainment.

"In a sense, phones are not simply expected to just serve as a communications platform in 2009," he said. "The potential for brands is really limitless, it's just hampered by a currently poor discovery process."

Getting the word out to a large cross-section of the population is always a challenge.

"Many brands traditionally have not focused on mobile, but there is a huge untapped market in the sector and you've seen more and more of the top brands expand their efforts to include mobile," Mr. Ariganello said.

"By remediating the discovery process using a solution like Mpowerplayer, brands can unleash the full capabilities of mobile to reach demographics that historically they would not be able to touch," he said.