Microsoft Zumobi platform goes into beta

Microsoft spin off Zumobi has pushed its mobile widget platform into the beta stages, with a release of the platform that can be downloaded by consumers.

The beta version of Zumobi, launched with 75 partner widgets, or ’tiles’, as the company calls them.

These tiles work in much the same way as widgets do on PCs, although they are more comparable to Nokia’s WidSets platform. They offer an alternative mobile web browsing experience, delivering bite sized chunks of information from a web site, specifically designed for the mobile phone interface.

Saying that, the beta of Zumobi only works on Windows Mobile 5 and 6, with Blackberry and selected J2ME compatibility coming in the second quarter of 2008. A data plan is required, and unlimited data plans are strongly recommended, by Zumobi.

Launch partners include Amazon, MTV Networks, the Associated Press, AccuWeather.com, Traffic.com and FlightStats.com.

But given the slow adoption of the internet on the mobile in general, we’re not really sure yet another platform thrown into the mix is really the way to go. As it is, website’s already have to develop or design a portal that can be accessed on the ‘mobile web’ as well as through interfaces such as WidSets. An increasing number of devices now ship with full fledged XHTML browsers but screen size is still the limiting factor.

On the other hand, widgets are popular enough on the PC platform and in May, Nokia said that it had racked up 1 million registered users to its WidSets platform worldwide, since its launch in October 2006.