The wireless enterprise market-long a scene of sedate players and leisurely sales cycles-has cracked open with finger pointing, name calling, innuendo and otherwise rabid competition.
“It really is a great indicator that it (the market) is starting to blossom,” said Jason Guesman, vice president of carrier marketing for wireless e-mail company Seven.
Seven joins Visto Corp., Research In Motion Ltd., Good Technology Inc., Extended Systems and Intellisync Corp. in jostling for market placement. RIM is far and away the leader, with more than 3 million customers toting its popular BlackBerry gadgets, but its position isn’t assured. Indeed, industry players are desperately clawing at each other to gain a foothold in the space.
“I think what’s playing out in the marketplace is a pretty sound victory for Seven over Visto,” Guesman boasted.
Visto disagrees.
“Things have gone our way most of the time,” proclaimed Sanjay Kamble, Visto’s vice president of marketing.
Such direct public denunciations are relatively uncommon in the wireless industry, and the wireless enterprise space used to be one of the most reserved segments of the market. Thus, the increased level of rhetoric indicates the market is heating up quickly-and some may not have the wherewithal to remain standing.
Just last week, JP Mobile Inc. fell by the wayside as Good announced it acquired the assets of the company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Further, Sprint Corp. announced plans to sell offerings from both Good and Seven. The carrier already sells RIM’s BlackBerry devices and service.
Sprint’s moves are typical of most carriers. Operators generally appear content to offer wireless enterprise services from a range of third-party vendors in an attempt to satisfy the largest possible number of customers. Such services primarily include wireless access to e-mail, calendar and contacts, but can also cover specific applications like customer-relationship management and sales-force automation.
By expanding its wireless enterprise offerings, Sprint is targeting several different parts of the market.
With RIM’s BlackBerry, Sprint is targeting individuals and corporate information technology managers. RIM’s BlackBerry devices can access corporate information-including e-mail and other applications-through a BlackBerry server, but the service works only on BlackBerry gadgets.
RIM’s numerous rivals point out that BlackBerry is a proprietary system, and that so far, RIM has had little luck in getting its software installed on devices from other manufacturers. Nonetheless, the company is riding a wave of success, and most industry analysts forecast that it will be able to retain its lead in the future.
RIM’s nearest rival is Good.
“It’s always us against RIM,” said Danny Shader, Good’s chief executive officer.
Good sells a platform similar to BlackBerry that offers access to corporate e-mail and other applications. However, Good’s offering works across other platforms including the Palm OS and Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile. Although Good initially started out selling its offering through its own direct sales force, the company is now working to get carriers to resell its GoodLink and GoodAccess products. So far Sprint and Cingular Wireless L.L.C. have agreed to resell Good’s products.
“I think we’ll end up doing business with all of the carriers,” Shader said, explaining that carriers are now Good’s most important sales channel.
Shader explained that Good is targeting a specific part of the market-medium- to large-sized corporations using smart phones-which puts Good in direct competition with RIM and sets the company apart from the rest of the market’s contenders.
Visto, Seven and others in the market are taking a white-label approach. Instead of selling their technology under their own brands, they offer their technology to carriers and others that then rebrand it as their own. For example, Sprint sells Seven’s offering as its Sprint PCS Business Connection, while Vodafone Group plc rebrands Visto’s technology, and Verizon Wireless rebrands Intellisync Corp.’s technology.
Such deals typically involve a revenue-sharing agreement between the carrier and the vendor based on the number of subscribers to the service. Visto claims around 500,000 paying customers, while Seven counts “several hundred thousand.” Seven declined to provide specific customer numbers.
Both Visto and Seven sell wireless access to corporate e-mail, contact and calendar information to individuals and corporate IT managers. Unlike offerings from RIM and Good, Visto and Seven do not provide access to other corporate information like sales-force automation. Thus, the companies generally can offer their services for lower prices across a wider range of devices. However, their services can run on the types of high-end devices that Good targets. Interestingly, both companies said they are considering expanding their offerings to cover applications beyond e-mail.
Although similar, Visto and Seven differ on their approaches to the market. Visto sells its technology exclusively to wireless carriers, while Seven has cast a wider net. The company recently signed a deal with Yahoo! to offer an application for wireless access to Yahoo!’s e-mail service, and Seven said it hopes to score additional deals in that vein.
As Visto, Seven, Good and others in the wireless enterprise market bicker among themselves, the market around them appears to be expanding. Research and consulting firm Yankee Group forecast that there are nearly 50 million workers who could purchase wireless enterprise applications.
