TORONTO, CANAFA: Following the launch of its Breeze mobile application development and distribution platform, Cascada Mobile is officially launching Breeze Apps, an online portal for finding and downloading free applications to mobile phones available at www.breezeapps.com.

The Breeze Apps portal makes it easy for anyone with a Java-capable mobile phone to discover new and innovative applications which they can download and install for free. Supported by more than 2 billion phones in the market today, Java is the most commonly used programming language for mobile phones.

Cascada's Breeze platform provides anyone with knowledge of even the most basic Web programming languages the easiest method for creating, testing and distributing mobile applications to phones anywhere in the world. Breeze-created applications are subsidized by mobile advertisements making the service free for anyone to use in addition to making the mobile applications free for anyone to download. The Breeze Apps portal allows applications created using Breeze to be easily found on the web and downloaded to a phone.

"Mobile phones are without question the most underutilized computing platform in the world," said Alan Lysne, CEO of Cascada Mobile. "Despite the fact that billions of phones are able to run applications, industry research shows that less than 5 percent of mobile subscribers around the world are actually running third-party applications on their phones.

"Cascada Mobile believes there are two main reasons why this number is so low: first, that conditions for mobile application development are a huge challenge, limiting the number of mobile developers and applications; and second, that there are few resources for finding applications that are of interest to subscribers. The Breeze platform and Breeze Apps portal solve both halves of this mobile application problem."

The Breeze Apps portal displays titles, descriptions and screen shots to help people find applications of interest. Anyone who downloads an application from the Breeze Apps portal has the opportunity to rate it in order to help other users find applications of value. Breeze Apps can sort applications by top rated, most downloaded, newest, title and other criteria. People can also search using keywords to find the right application for their needs.

Once an application is selected, the user can receive the download link via an SMS text message, or can surf to a web address using the browser on the mobile phone. Breeze Apps will automatically identify the user's phone make and model and then will select the specific version of the application made for that phone for download.

Not only do developers now have one of the easiest methods for distributing their applications, people who use those applications can be assured the application will work correctly on their mobile phones. Unlike the "write once, run anywhere" world of Web programming, where a single set of code can work universally on any computer, operating system and Web browser, mobile application development is fraught with complexities.

Mobile phones can have different screen sizes, button and keyboard configurations, and other features that impact how a mobile application runs. Despite the fact that J2ME, the mobile version of the Java programming language, is supported by billions of phones in the market today, an application that runs on one phone may not work on hundreds of other phone models, even if those phones are similar in design or come from the same manufacturer.

To ensure that an application works on all handset makes and models, it must be tested. The daunting task of testing applications on hundreds of different phones by itself puts mobile development out of reach for a great many developers.

Beyond the testing, global application distribution requires dealing with more than 100 different wireless carriers and network operators. The Breeze platform reduces the testing of mobile applications for hundreds of different handsets down to testing on the Breeze Simulator.

Developers receive a simple line of code they can put on their websites, blogs or social network pages allowing people to download the application merely by entering their mobile number. Breeze also takes care of distribution via SMS, WAP push and direct download from a mobile phone, ensuring the right version of the application is sent to each end user's phone.