Who’s delivering e-mail to all those fancy smartphones?: Well, besides Research in Motion

Smartphones are no longer the exclusive domain of high-powered executives and road warriors. But what that means for the mobile e-mail space – which seems perennially on the verge of reaching a tipping point – has yet to be determined.
Handset manufacturers and application developers are increasingly targeting what Palm called “the fat middle” of consumerswho use their phones for both business and personal activities. Apple Inc. and Google Inc., among others, are gaining traction among tech-savvy consumers as Research In Motion Ltd. and Palm Inc. move aggressively to expand beyond traditional corporate types.
The smartphone sector will continue to heat up this year, according to a new report from ABI Research, as smartphone shipments increase worldwide even as the overall handset market dips.
So who’s delivering e-mail to all those fancy gadgets? It’s tough to say.
“It’s hard to quantify, especially if you want to include things like the Gmail application,” said Sean Ryan, a mobile enterprise analyst for IDC. “That’s much more of a Web-based service; it’s not really a direct push, but it pings the server every once in a while. That’s where it gets harder to quantify.”
The rapid growth of individual-liable business users – those who buy their own handsets for corporate use – is playing a major role in the lack of visibility into the mobile e-mail market, Ryan added. That is especially attractive for businesses in a struggling economy, of course, minimizing their cost of hardware as they mobilize employees. And that’s a significant advantage for traditional e-mail services such as Microsoft Exchange, IBM’s Lotus and Novell’s Groupwise.
“That’s a real easy in” for those companies, Ryan continued. “For many companies that’s the way to go, because from that perspective it’s free. They still have the cost of having to manage that, but essentially it’s a low cost of entry, so they’re the big winners.”
Nokia, on the other hand, is focusing on lower-end users and mainstream consumers, and using free mobile e-mail as bait to entice customers to buy its handsets and use its wireless Web services. The Finnish company last year announced plans to ditch its Intellisync business, opting instead to integrate its corporate-centric devices and applications with offerings from other vendors and “reallocating” the e-mail technology to two consumer plays: Nokia Messaging, a push e-mail service for S60 and Series 40 devices that connects to AOL Mail, Gmail, Windows Live Hotmail and Yahoo Mail; and Mail on Ovi, which offers a stand-alone service with 1GB of storage and is designed in part for users who don’t have consistent Internet access.
Interestingly, Nokia plans to renew support for BlackBerry Connect, RIM’s service that offers its flagship e-mail service on non-RIM devices. The company pulled the service last summer but once again will allow users to access BlackBerry connect on S60 handsets “in the near future.”
“Our strategy around offering support for Internet-based mailboxes like Exchange and Lotus Traveler is the belief that those companies have done such an incredible job of offering secure e-mail service that the need for additional middleware and another infrastructure cost at this point isn’t required anymore,” said Mark Thomas, Nokia’s director of marketing for Nokia’s consumer-messaging products. “Our intent really is to bring a first-class experience that offers both enterprise e-mail access as well as consumer push e-mail services and allow you to get it no matter what device you choose.”
RIM – which declined to be interviewed for this piece – continues to dominate the high end of the market, of course. The venerable player shipped its 50 millionth unit in January and offers service in 150 countries through more than 400 carriers and distribution partners, and it added 4,000 new employees last year. And while the company seems content to all but ignore BlackBerry Connect – “That’s a very small part of their business; it always has been,” Ryan said – that momentum is likely to increase thanks largely to a $150 million carrot luring developers to the platform. The company is expected to launch a new online storefront in the next several weeks, using an Apple-like model to distribute content and applications to BlackBerry users.
“RIM is facing a bit more competition now,” Ryan observed. “Apple changed the game with the iPhone, and the BlackBerry is coming on strong (in the prosumer market). I think those two have the most momentum, and I think Nokia’s back on their heels a little bit.
“You hear people say that Nokia needs a device refresh; a new way of going. They’ve done a great job with their Ovi platform, and their N Series devices have done really well, but from a usage perspective – mobile workers are people too. You need to address both.”
The coveted “fat middle” of mobile e-mail isn’t set to explode anytime soon, however. Analysts generally agree that while the space is likely to continue to see steady growth, factors such as the economic downturn and pricy data plans will prevent the kind of hockey-stick uptake that had once been anticipated. So while RIM remains the dominant player and Apple is the flavor of the month, the prosumer email market remains wide open.