| There's a lot of hype at the moment about
push email technology. New cell phone handsets are beginning to support the technology and
it seems to be getting its head into other areas of the market too. This could be the next
big thing in the telecommunications industry and the speculation is heating up about who
are going to be the major players involved.
Right now there are at least five major operators in this
market and surely this will be reduced in the near future. Most experts say that there are
simply too many of them fighting over the same space.
Right now both Visto and Seven have been keen to show their
commitment to this technology. These are following the lead set by Canadian firm RIM
(Research In Motion) who brought the technology into the spotlight with their Blackberry
device. While so far they have been concentrating on supplying hardware, they have stated
that they will be moving into the supply of software instead in the near future.
The wave of consolidations has already begun. British
vendor Comtag was acquired by Smartner who in turn was acquired by Seven; moving in
parallel with this, Visto acquired Psion Software. It looks like the heat is turning up in
the race to capture this market. Both Visto and Seven show no sign of flagging as they
continue to increase the number of operators they can lay claim to, as well as increasing
the number of handsets and other supported devices they are marketing. Seven has also
added a useful security feature which allows you to send a special message to your device
which will delete all the messages it currently has stored. This could be lifesaving if
you left your handset in a public place.
Good Technology was somewhat shielded in its area by
supporting Palm and Windows devices but now there is the new Windows Mobile based Treos to
contend with.
So what is Microsoft's reaction to all of this?
Well, they appear to be gearing up to enter the market. In
his blog, Microsoft senior technology specialist, Harold Wong has reported that the
company is getting ready to release its 'Community Technology Preview' build of Exchange
Server 2003, Service pack 2. And this is not the only step the giant is taking. In June
2005, Intellisync announced a new service that would allow subscribers to receive push
email on Windows Mobile, Palm OS and Symbian devices.
While, of the current estimated 4 million push email
subscribers, most seem to be using RIM Blackberry devices, this assault will be difficult
to bare much longer.
On the technical side, there are two basic technologies
that can provide push email solutions:
- one technology is true push;
- the other has a push effect using synchronization.
While the user will not notice a significant difference
when they log in to check their mail, the costs vary to a considerable extent with true
push technologies offering a far cheaper monthly cost to the user. While Intellisync is
currently using a SyncML or synchronization technology to serve its customers, RIM and
Microsoft are using their own proprietary systems. The system that has found favor both
with Vodafone, the world's largest network operator, and Rogers, the first operator to
deploy Blackberry devices is the solution that Visto opted for also. This is best
described as a Proprietary + RTP/RTSP system and Visto calls it ConstantSync. It
effectively relies on a real time streaming protocol to deliver email over mobile
networks.
Whatever the technicalities behind the networks, there is a
lot to play for in this emerging market and we'll have to wait and see whose technology
and handheld devices carry the most favor with customers. All have relative advantages and
disadvantages both in terms of technology and market strategy and it all really is still
to play for. |
