BLU has announced a new partnership with Celltick, the company behind the Android lock screen replacement Start. With this partnership, BLU will begin preloading the Start-based interface on upcoming smartphones that are released, like the Vivo 5 and Vivo XL. What Start does is provide Android users with what they want most when they wake up their phone, giving you the ability to quickly make calls, send messages, launch your favorite apps and take photos with just a single gesture.

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We've seen a number of smartphone manufacturers partner with software companies to preload various elements to make their phones stand out from the crowd. You can find full details about the partnership below.

Press release:

BLU Partners with Celltick to Enable Start-Based Interface for New Phones

Celltick Start Now Powers the Interface of All BLU phones, Creating Smarter, More Engaging User Interactions

CES – Las Vegas, Nevada – January 7, 2015 – Celltick, a global leader in mobile marketing, announced today that BLU Products, one of the fastest growing mobile phone manufacturers in the world and the largest direct-to-consumer phone brand in North America, has selected Celltick Start to power the interface for its newest Android devices. With this news, Celltick now powers all BLU Products phone models. BLU is demonstrating its new Vivo 5 and Vivo XL models with the Start interface at the CES Show in Las Vegas.

"BLU Products focuses extensively on creating mobile devices that are fun, easy to use and stimulating," says Mariana Ferreira, Sr. Director of Business Development, BLU Products. "Celltick's Start helps us to increase the appeal of our products even further, by enabling a highly-engaging and personalized user experience, every time a user interacts with their phone. Across the globe, smartphone adoption is continuing at a rampant pace, and partnerships with companies like Celltick enable us to better capitalize on these opportunities."

Celltick's Start provides Android users with what they want most when they wake up their phone. Celltick partners with operators, media companies and device manufacturers, enabling them to better engage with their users on the start screen. With Start, users can rapidly call, message, take photos and launch favorite apps with a single gesture. Users can also access their preferred news, social media, sports, videos and more right on their start screen.

Start is adaptive and is different for every user. Its intelligent back-end identifies user traits and tailors the start screen dynamically and uniquely to individuals. Using big data, the Start platform learns user habits and creates a personal experience for each user. For example, a user may be alerted to their preferred sports teams scores; or, a user may receive news alerts at a particular time of day, based on what hours they tend to be most active on their device. A proven solution, Start has been chosen as the preferred platform by more than 40 operators, device manufacturers and media companies worldwide.

"In a hypercompetitive mobile device market, manufacturers must utilize every opportunity to build brand loyalty. We are proud to partner with a high quality affordable device manufacturer such as BLU to disrupt the North American device market. We are confident that we will enable BLU to craft out a new identity to create personalized technology," says Ramgopal Vidyanand (Anand), Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Business Development, Celltick. "BLU Products is making its new models more appealing to a wide range of user segments. With Start, we are glad to further their ambitions to democratize the smartphone market."