It’s no secret that Research In Motion is at a vulnerable point, with the prospect of an injunction that would shut down its US business hanging over its head. But, as we’ve said many times before, a threat that’s just as serious is the rising level of competition in the push email market. Certainly plenty of potential customers have explored offerings from the company’s rivals, spurred on by the looming potential of a shutdown, or looking for a solution that’s available on a wide array of devices.
There are plenty of companies here at 3GSM pushing their email solutions (pardon the pun), none less than Microsoft. While the latest versions of Exchange Server and the new version of Windows Mobile have “supported” push email for some time, but a number of operators have now committed to rolling out the necessary upgrades to enable the service on devices they’ve sold. But it today announced a couple of collaborations with mobile operators to give it a boost: specialized push email tariffs (apparently coming soon from Cingular, and a hosted Exchange service for small- and medium-sized businesses.
Vodafone in France, Germany and the UK and T-Mobile In the Netherlands will offer hosted Exchange service that includes push email, which could become an interesting proposition for smaller companies that haven’t yet turned to Blackberry or a similar solution, whether it’s because of cost, or a lack of dedicated IT resources to have their own Exchange server. For example, the T-Mobile offer will cost 20 euros per month.
It also seems pretty clear that Microsoft is really focusing on the business market, although it also said it is working with Texas Instruments to develop a reference design that uses a TI single-chip solution that allows manufacturers to lower their materials costs. This is a move that could help create some lower-priced, and perhaps lower-end Windows Mobile devices, but the problem isn’t just the cost — the UI is likely too overwhelming for many general use consumers.
—–>Follow us on Twitter too: @russellbuckley and @caaarlo
Recent Comments