Over-the-air update software vendor InnoPath today marked its entry into the U.S. market, announcing a deal with Sprint to support wireless firmware and software upgrades to its mobile phones.

While InnoPath will initially support one phone, the Sanyo MM 7400, company officials said InnoPath hopes to use that device as a stepping stone to mass support of smartphones and devices across the U.S. InnoPath is one of the leaders in Asia’s OTA sector, its software loaded on 38 million devices. With some carriers like KDDI in Japan, InnoPath has a contract to handle firmware updates across its entire line of mobile devices.

The U.S. market is still relatively untapped though, said David Sym-Smith, senior vice president of marketing and business development for InnoPath. "Asia’s been more aggressive on 3G deployments than the rest of the world," Sym-Smith said. "A lot of what’s driving OTA is increasing complexity of handsets. So as the U.S. starts deploying more complicated smartphones the need for our technology increases."

InnoPath’s software is loaded onto every handset supported when a firmware update is available for the device, servers on the carriers network upload it through a data connection to the device. Not only does the server support firmware updates, Sym-Smith said, but it also can be used to update OS software, middleware, phone settings and even programs that require regular updates such as anti-viral applications.

OTA has gotten increased scrutiny from carriers as the costs of maintaining and replacing increasingly expensive and complex handsets rises. Second generation phones had only a fraction of the software that current devices now depend on, increasing the chances phones will be sent with glitches and errors. Vendors have found OTA attractive also because it promises shorter testing cycles and quicker time to market. Previously a glitch could have triggered a major product recall costing carriers and vendors millions. But in most cases those glitches are software based, which can then be handled by a simple OTA update.