iWidgets--a San Francisco-based start-up that specializes in solutions which it bills as enabling video and other content providers to enable, control and monetize interaction with their content across social, mobile and connected TV platforms (note: its customers include CBS, Revision3, TV.com, Lifetime Television, and CNN)--will announce today that it has changed its name to Transpond, and that it is now supporting the creation and publishing of "full-scale" mobile applications for the Apple iPhone and the Palm Pre, in order, it says, to enable companies to "engage consumers wherever they are." The company claims to deliver a "seamless way" for content producers to engage with fans on the go, by allowing those producers to create unique apps that offer video, polls, 
quizzes, social games, viral marketing messages, ecommerce and other features. It says that these so-called "engagement apps," which are also available for Facebook, MySpace, hi5, iGoogle and Yahoo Connected TV, leverage the native social channels available on each mobile platform in order to "keep users and their friends immersed in the content experience." "Content producers need apps that deliver viral engagement with their audience, wherever they might be," iWidgets/Transpond founder and CEO, Peter Yared, said in a prepared statement. "This engagement can include syndication with rating, quizzes and polls, for instance, or with new ways to monetize content and drive Web traffic. Transpond is the fastest and easiest way for a content producer to create a truly unique and engaging mobile app that can then be deployed on the Palm Pre and iPhone."
According to Transpond, its Write Once Engage Everywhere application-creation technology supports Palm Pre applications today, leveraging Palm's webOS platform, and will support iPhone applications later this summer. The company bills its self-service online platform as providing individual and corporate content owners, that want to create their own applications for social networks and mobile platforms, with a full menu of design features and an easy-to-use wizard. The company also offers what it bills as a complete design, development and deployment service to content producers that want a custom "engagement app" designed for their specific programming needs.
