July’s news of a two-year licensing agreement with ‘one of the world's top five mobile telephone handset manufacturers’ marks a significant progression for 3D software business DDD. First and foremost the deal delivers a solid slice of revenue – at least £500,000 in relation to the first handset produced, £150,000 of which will be recognised in the first half of this year – moreover, it implies that after three and half years on AIM, DDD may have at last identified a viable market for its technologies.

‘When we did the IPO our initial idea was to sell [3D solutions] for advertising and promotions,’ chief executive Chris Yewdall recalls. ‘We went through the process of trying to get that market to grow. Unfortunately it just plateaued.’

An agreement with Sharp, relating to its laptops, subsequently helped DDD lift its profile and the new mobile phone agreement seems to offer genuine potential. As Yewdall states, ‘mobiles continue to sell in huge quantities and [represent one of the few devices] people will buy simply because they are cool.’

No firm launch date has been announced for the handset DDD is working on, but a release within the next 18 months seems likely. The hope is that customers will initially rush to download 3D wallpapers, screensavers and the like. As an investment DDD remains highly speculative, though agreements with the likes of Sharp and the as-yet-unnamed mobile phone group do suggest a definite step in the right direction.