Apple iOS, Google Android applications tweaked for on-demand

Brainshark has unveiled features for its video presentation service to create a more interactive experience for smartphone users.

The key changes in Brainshark Enhanced Mobile are a new Adobe Flash-based player for Android and Palm webOS devices, and changes to Brainshark's iOS app.

The idea, says CEO Joe Gustafson, is to let enterprises uses existing static content to create more effective video-like presentations. The service is used in marketing, customer relationship management, partner communications, training and education applications.

The new Enhanced Mobile offering is intended to improve viewing for, and reporting on, mobile users of Brainshark-created content. The new Flash-based player lets Android and webOS users receive attached documents, search a table of contents and shift between different sections of the file, for instance. The iOS app has been tweaked so it can be invoked automatically, and now offers many of the same features as the Flash player.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida is using Brainshark to craft presentations to communicate plan information to its 4 million members, and for sales communications and on-demand training for agents and brokers. All these groups are using mobile devices and the health insurer wants to make these tools as accessible and convenient as possible, according to Jep Larkin, director of sales communications for BCBSF.

The online service

Pricing for the online service, which for business clients includes Brainshark Enhanced Mobile, varies based on the size of the business: small office/home office professionals, typically start at $10 per month, up to $3,000 per year; small-to-medium businesses, run $10,000-$30,000 per year; lLarge businesses, over $50,000 per year.