I am always looking for a new way to organize and maintain my contacts, so I was pretty excited to learn about Orbit from Trillibis, which is coming soon to an iPhone and Blackberry near you.  So far, there are no Windows Mobile, WebOS or other versions, but I have it on pretty good authority that this one should be coming to more platforms before too long.

So…what exactly is Orbit?  I would love to tell you that it is a contact manager, but it is also so much more than that.  It combines all of your contacts from various social networking locations (including Facebook and Twitter) in one place; displays their social network status updates; and, of course, allows you to call or email them.  All from your iPhone or Blackberry.  Keep reading for the full press release.

Trilibis Mobile, an innovative developer of mobile search and social networking applications, today announced Orbit™, the first cross-platform, cross-network, cross-device mobile social phonebook that cleverly organizes all of your communication channels: voice, text, e-mail and social networking.
The application has two unique differentiators that provide users with an enhanced experience. The Inner Orbit feature lets users choose which contacts to follow closely and helps users create additional orbits for each social circle. With its Social Volume control, Orbit empowers users to manage the level of communication received by allowing them to decide how often and how much information they receive from their orbits.
“In today’s hyper-connected world, we utilize several different channels and methods to access e-mail, call colleagues, text our friends, update Facebook and more. The massive amount of information in many different places creates an enormous challenge for users,” said Alex Panelli, CEO of Trilibis Mobile. “We created Orbit – the next evolution of the phonebook – to make it easy to gather, organize and communicate with your contacts and social circles. Orbit delivers a significant improvement of the essential phone book functions plus more: connect via multiple mediums with one touch, receive consolidated social network feeds and manage the flow of social information with the Social Volume control.”

Easy to Set Up, Easy to Use  
Orbit was designed with a simple and fast one-step setup process. With the click of a button Orbit synchronizes with the device’s existing phonebook. The Inner Orbit feature enables users to choose and follow a select group of contacts more closely. They also have the option of creating additional orbits to follow more contacts via Facebook and Twitter as well.
Orbit offers over-the-air updates for a seamless integration of content in real time and users can be assured that the native address book will always remain on their device – so there is never any threat of losing existing contact information stored on the phone.

Summary of Key Features

• Improved Core Controls – Use your Orbit phonebook just like your existing phonebook; make calls, send text messages and e-mails. Orbit includes an enhanced A-to-Z scrolling feature to greatly improve the navigation of contacts on touch screen devices.
• Orbits – Create an “Inner Orbit” for your closest friends. Add additional Orbits such as college friends, colleagues or family members, making it easy and convenient to keep track of everyone’s updates.
• Social Volume – With Orbit’s unique “Social Volume” control, you can control the level of communication from your groups of contacts whether by time of day, day of week, type of feed, birthdays, etc.
• Connected Phonebook – Rest assured! Orbit’s contact information is always updating so you will always be “in the know.” Orbit organizes and consolidates your contacts and auto-generates a favorites list based on the people you communicate with the most.

Orbit is scheduled to be released for iPhone and Blackberry later this year as a free app.  It will be available on the Android platform by early 2010 with other platforms (including feature phones) to follow.  For now, you can check it out at http://www.launchorbit.com/.