SEVEN showcases integrated messaging platform

SAN FRANCISCO — A California company believes e-mail shouldn’t be just for smartphones and the application should be compatible with voice and text messaging.
As the annual CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2008 kicks off today in San Francisco, SEVEN is unveiling its new Integrated Messaging Platform, which the company says combines business and personal e-mail, contacts and calendar with voicemail, text and instant messaging.
“Our goal is to provide e-mail on as many devices as possible,” said Jason Guesman, SEVEN senior VP and general manager, Americas. “This is software that is quite flexible and can be deployed on a number of handsets and can connect to a number of services.”
The Redwood City, Calif., company started in 2000 and is a global market leader in push e-mail and mobile messaging software.
Isabelle Dumont, SEVEN marketing director, said the new messaging platform is a simple solution that makes it easier for customers to send messages regardless of whether the message originated as an e-mail or a text message.
With the new platform, a person can “grab a text message, forward it to a contact as an e-mail and attach pictures or documents that are relative,” Dumont said.
To create the platform, SEVEN combined the Adobe Flash ecosystem with its mobile client technology. The result is one application where traffic will be significantly streamlined. With traffic streamlined, battery life on handsets will also improve, the company said.
“Currently, separate mobile applications are needed to handle each type of message, including text, voicemail and e-mail,” Trevor Fiatal, SEVEN chief technology officer, said in a statement. “Each of these applications has a different user interface and lacks the simple, intuitive sharing resources possible in an integrated solution.”
Guesman said the company is negotiating with various carriers and handset manufacturers to offer the new technology. The company has been working on the platform for about the past year.
He expects the service will be available by the start of 2009. The company has been working on the platform for about the past year.
SEVEN said it is working with Qualcomm Inc., which will install the platform on handset so customers don’t have to download the app.
“There is a huge part of the market that doesn’t want to deal with installation,” Dumont said. “They just want to have a phone that has e-mail already on it.”
Dumont said the user friendliness of the new platform sticks with the company’s mission of keeping its applications simple.
She said SEVEN will market the new platform to small businesses that lack an information technology infrastructure.
“It will be easy to adopt by small businesses and is also easy to manage,” Dumont said.
The new technology is compatible with all major mobile platforms including BREW, J2ME, Palm, Windows Mobile and Symbian. The company ships on 340 device models from leading manufacturers, including HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, Samsung, Sanyo and Sony Ericsson. In the United States, AT&T Mobility and Sprint Nextel Corp. have chosen SEVEN for its solutions.