Push Email

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