A few years ago, cloud computing technology came along and revolutionized the way information could be accessed and shared via the Internet. Then, smartphones, such as the iPhone and Android, changed the face of the personalized computer, making Web-surfing more ubiquitous than ever. Now, local technology startup AlwaysOnPC is combining the two technological achievements and taking it to the next level, and — as per its name — bringing customers all the benefits of a PC anytime, right in the palm of their hands.
AlwaysOnPC is part of the bigger brand xForm Computing — as in “transforming how computing is delivered” — and was founded by CEO and serial entrepreneur Kroum Antov.
With the convergence of cloud computing and mobile and broadband devices looming on the digital horizon as possibly the most prolific technological advancement since the emergence of the Internet browser, Antov created software that would allow people access to a complete “virtual computer,” preloaded with more than 40 applications that can be used from any PC, Mac, iPhone/iTouch, Android smartphone and iPad.
Chief marketing ofifcer David McClintock said the young company has grown the largest percentage of its customer base so far around two applications in particular.
“We have two main groups of people who are seeing the biggest benefits from our software, especially our iPhone app,” McClintock said. “One group is business people using Office Suite when they are on the road. They can open, edit and save documents anytime, from anywhere.
“Then there’s the second group of people who use it mainly to view flash-based Web sites. Although we don’t have full-motion video yet, we’re currently working on creating software that will improve latency to the point that we can support audio and streaming video in the future.”
In addition to the full Office Suite — including Word, Excel and PowerPoint — and Firefox with Flash Player, AlwaysOnPC offers 2 gigabytes of online storage, a customizable desktop, the ability to load files easily from any PC or Mac, and an ever-growing list of applications, such as the newly added Adobe Reader.
Customers can run multiple apps at the same time from their smartphones, just like they would on a PC, and the Flash Player supports Web sites that typically don’t work on mobile browsers, such as Facebook games and real money poker.
McClintock and Antov first worked together at Connected Systems, a custom computer programming service, in the mid-1990s, and reconnected in January as AlwaysOnPC was beginning to gain momentum. A graduate of Stanford University, McClintock was formerly the vice president of marketing for both Connected Systems and Cogi, as well as the director of product management at local CallWave, before taking the marketing reigns for AlwaysOnPC.
Antov was previously the co-founder and chief technology officer of Delta Silicon/PDAPointer.com, where he was responsible for software development. He was also software team leader at Connected Systems before launching xFormComputing. He has more than 20 years of experience in the field of electronics software.
AlwaysOnPC, which was bankrolled in full by Antov, is available for unlimited use for a one-time fee, a strategy McClintock says is paying off.
“I credit Kroum for having the discipline and the wisdom to get to market quickly by making the decision, instead of optimizing profit, to optimize business for efficiency, because there was not a lot of capital to start with,” McClintock said. “So we’ve managed to get to market and get to profitability with a simple upfront offer.”
So far, the company has only one outside investor: longtime software and engineering entrepreneur Val Babajov. They are looking for funding to expand the business, although McClintock said the company has grown its revenue fourfold. And he emphasizes that raising capital hasn’t been a primary focus, as they don’t want to be distracted from continuing to build the efficiency of their product.
He said one of the benefits of residing “in the cloud” is that building out the product and adding new apps is easy and cost-effective.
“The power of the cloud is that when we make changes and updates, we don’t have to go out and touch every device that people are using,” he said. “People just log back in to their AlwaysOnPC, and poof — it’s ready for use.”
As McClintock and Antov look toward the future of mobile and broadband capability, they see endless possibilities for expansion. Their main objective in the long run, McClintock says, is to be able to find a low-cost solution for bringing the unlimited power of cloud computing to any mobile device.
“Our strategic future goes far beyond the current mobile devices,” he said. “We believe we can take this type of infrastructure and eventually deploy it on a very low-cost device. We want to bring the rich variety of apps that we offer to a consumer-priced phone or a down-market phone. That way, we can enable people and families to have access to incredibly powerful apps at a reasonable price, and on a variety of different home or handheld devices.”
Click here to try AlwaysOnPC for free for five days.
— Noozhawk contributor Kevin McFadden can be reached at kmcfadden@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk or @NoozhawkNews. Become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.