Which Startup Is out To Get Apple and Google?

Apostrophy AG is a mobile industry veteran-founded software firm. This week, it will launch a smartphone operating system that puts privacy first at Davos.

The Swiss firm is developing a third option around the promise of data sovereignty, betting on a growing push by regulators worldwide to rein in Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google on mobile platforms. Petter Neby, the company’s founder, is already selling high-design, low-tech mobile phones. He is attending the World Economic Forum to raise Apostrophy’s name in front of prospective investors and government officials looking for a more competitive mobile environment.

Lugano-based Apostrophy has failed to compete against Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone ecosystems. In addition, it rallied against Microsoft Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., HP Inc.’s Palm, and even the Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox OS. It is now entering a market of competition that is more or less forgotten. Neby’s crew recruited former software engineers from KaiOS, a collaborative effort to address emerging markets and inexpensive gadgets.

The Apostrophy Business Model Is Built on Legacy Expertise

The chairman of Apostrophy is constructing following his beliefs and knowledge. Neby developed Punkt in 2008. It is a line of feature phones targeted at consumers who want to stay in touch but are overwhelmed by the “distraction business” of current smartphones. Additionally, he has appointed Steve Cistulli, who has 25 years of mobile industry experience, as chief executive officer, based on a depth of business knowledge.

Apostrophy’s combination of software and services will charge customers a subscription fee, unlike Apple and Google. It will concentrate on hardware manufacturers, not end-users, reminiscent of the security-centric, old but gold BlackBerry service ecosystem. Punkt is the firm’s client. Apostrophy employs more than 50 people across the globe. Now it plans to raise 10 million euros ($11 million) this year.

AphyOS is a proprietary operating system built atop GrapheneOS, an open-source version of Android. It prevents apps from collecting user data by dividing them into groups. Apple’s updates to iOS on iPhones had a disastrous impact on Meta Platforms Inc.’s advertising revenue. The same is true here. Aphy will support Android applications, but it won’t come with Google’s Mobile Services or Play Store by default.