Orb Wants to Free Digital Content

The startup's place-shifting software lets you tap into online content from any device. Now CEO Joseph Costello just has to figure out a way to make money

By Peter Burrows

Joseph Costello, 53, was once considered one of Silicon Valley's most promising young chief executives. In the 1990s he built Cadence Design Systems, a maker of product design software, into one of the largest software companies. Steve Jobs even interviewed him about running Apple Computer (AAPL) before Jobs decided to take the job himself and Costello went off to run Think3, a struggling Cincinnati maker of computer-aided design software.

Now, Costello is back at work in Silicon Valley trying to build another big software company. Costello is betting Orb Networks can forever change the way people view digital media.

The 30-person company, which he helped found and finance three years ago, makes software that lets users get to what's on their home PC from any device capable of running a Web browser—be it a laptop, cell phone, or, coming soon, the TV. "Digital media today is locked up on the PC, but we get it anywhere—on any screen," says Costello, who had been chairman of the company since 2005 but became full-time CEO in October, after leaving Think3.

Mix and Match

Orb isn't the only startup on this technology path, which is sometimes referred to as "place-shifting." Sling Media, for example, makes a device that lets TV lovers get virtual access to their TV on laptops or cell phones, right down to getting the local listings and anything they've recorded on a TiVo-style recorder.

What's different about Orb is that it's aiming beyond just one type of media or device. Instead, Orb hopes to be the behind-the-scenes glue that lets consumers mix and match any content on their PC or available through their PC's Net connection with any device they like.

It's an ambitious plan. At a time when millions of people are swarming to free Internet sites such as YouTube (GOOG) and MySpace, many wireless carriers, cable companies, and others are trying to hook consumers on premium services for which they pay a fee to get access to certain Net content on their cell phones, TVs, and other digital devices.

Orb's software could do away with having to pay for such services. "With Orb, it's simple: If you want to watch an Internet video on your cell phone or TV, then watch it," says Costello. "Why should you have to pay for content when you get it for free on your home PC?"

No Money Down

Consider what cell phone companies are doing. On Dec. 19, Cingular Wireless struck a deal with MySpace so Cingular subscribers can get access to their MySpace pages for $2.99 a month. A few weeks earlier, YouTube struck a deal that gives subscribers to Verizon Wireless' $15-a-month V Cast service could have access to the video site from their cell phones.

But access to MySpace and YouTube, via a PC over the Web, is free. On Nov. 15, Orb rolled out software that lets consumers tap into these and other sites from their cell phones, for no money down. Says Roger Entner, a vice-president for market researcher Ovum: "Place-shifting could be the soft underbelly of the wireless carriers' multimedia strategies. Why pay Cingular $2.99 a month for access to MySpace, when I can just go there directly?"

How does Orb work? Once consumers download Orb's free software to their PCs, they're prompted to indicate what content they want to show up on the portal they'll see when they log onto their Orb account from other devices. That's possible because Orb's technology tracks the unique attributes of all sorts of hardware and software and can adapt any data to fit the specs of various devices on the fly. "The magic is in the architecture, which offers complete flexibility—any file type, data format, screen size, media source, IP-based network, or screen size," enthuses Gary Morgenthaler of Morgenthaler Ventures, one of Orb's backers.