Mobile e-mail race heats up

BARCELONA, Spain: The race for technology companies to push e-mail to your cell phones and other mobile devices took a fast turn here at the 3GSM World Congress, with Microsoft Corp., Nokia and Research in Motion (RIM) all wanting to deliver e-mail wherever you go. Software giant Microsoft said it would provide solutions to deliver e-mail via Direct Push through Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Server. Nokia unveiled push e-mail plans after successfully acquiring Intellisync Corp. for 430 million dollars. Intellisync is the rival of RIM, maker of the BlackBerry handset which started the push e-mail revolution but is facing a possible injunction stemming from a patent lawsuit filed against it by NTP Inc. This may cause sales and services for the BlackBerry to be halted in the US. All three companies were in full force here at the 3GSM World Congress, but Microsoft was seen as the dark horse, being a non-traditional phone company seen as invading the turf of Nokia and BlackBerry. Nokia and BlackBerry were unfazed by Microsoft’s announcements that it would dominate the push e-mail market with its “more than 100" mobile device partners. These partners include makers of personal digital assistants aside from traditional cell phones. “We will immediately start integration of Intellisync into Nokia devices through the Nokia Business Center solution," Dave Grannan, Nokia general manager for e-mail and enterprise solutions, told Infotech. “By the third quarter Intellisync will be fully integrated and the brand dissolved." But Nokia is not limiting its solutions to its own phones. “This is an open system," Grannan said. “We can partner with Microsoft and even Blackberry. It could be on a Nokia platform, but if we push our e-mail to other devices we still win." Nokia already has a partnership with BlackBerry through Blackberry Connect which allows the latter’s software to be used in Nokia phones. Grannan said the partnership will not change nor affected by the acquisition of Intellisync. “If we could get our software into more devices then so much the better," said Clyde Foster, chief operating officer of Intellisync, in an interview. “We will support other mobile software platforms. We are already in 35 other non-Nokia platforms. Intellisync won’t be exclusive on Nokia [phones]." Meanwhile, RIM said it had contingency plans in case it loses its patent lawsuit in the United States. It said that an alternative technology will continue to make BlackBerry devices run in case the injunction pushes through. “Remember the case will affect US subscribers, not the entire market," said Ben Travers, Europe product manager for BlackBerry, in an interview. “There will be lots of competitors out there including Microsoft, but we already have a big head start considering we pioneered this industry. At the same time we are partners of Nokia and Sony Ericsson through BlackBerry Connect so we are not limited to our hardware." Grannan said RIM and Microsoft would target the high end of the market while Nokia could go from the entry level to sophisticated “smart phones." In separate interviews, Travers and Grannan both said that their advantage lies on having push e-mail software based on an open platform, and that Microsoft will expectedly offer its Direct Push solution to devices running on Windows Mobile. RIM and Nokia, on the other hand, are working to make their push e-mail available to devices running on Symbian, Palm, Windows Mobile and other platforms. INQ7.net