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Red Bend Software (News - Alert) announced on Monday that SIMCom Wireless renewed a licensing agreement to use vRapid Mobile software for firmware-over-the-air technology to provide remote updating on machine-to-machine (M2M) modules.

The vRapid Mobile software is used by companies to create fast, efficient firmware updating over the air typically used by M2M and service provider companies. New features, applications and operating system updates are common uses of vRapid Mobile, considered one of the most reliable FOTA updating software on the market.

It guarantees completion of software updates in spite of power loss or other disruptions. Compact update packages that are only a fraction of the size of regular update packages allow for faster delivery of updates to the device.

There are three main components of vRapid Mobile software. The first is the Update Generator, which helps developers identify changes in firmware and create a compact update package.

The second, Update Installer, is on the device and performs the actual update. Making optimal use of limited memory, ensuring accuracy and security so that the installation mives along smoothly are this component's major tasks.

The third and final component is the Complete Android (News - Alert) Update Client. This updates firmware in the background, allowing the Android device to operate normally at the same time.

SIMCom, which provides wireless modules for a variety of platforms, seeks to dominate the market for M2M modules used with various Web-enabled devices. A white paper by IDC (News - Alert) indicates that as many as 30 billion devices will be connected to the internet by 2020. SIMCom is positioning itself to be a leader in providing these modules before the demand reaches this level in seven years.

If updating firmware was a form of manual labor, it might be featured on Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe. It does a lot of the behind-the-scenes work that keeps mobile devices updated and working reliably. Like the operating system software developed over 30 years ago that became MS-DOS, solutions like vRapid Mobile do not do anything glamorous or fun, but without them, technology becomes a lot more difficult to use. It appears that both SIMCom and Red Bend recognize the value and utility of vRapid Mobile, just as Bill Gates did with what later became MS-DOS, and hope to dominate the mobile device market as Microsoft (News - Alert) dominated the PC software market.