I’ve notice some friends and colleagues who do have BlackBerry’s, can’t stop themselves from checking their emails.

More than 2 billion mobiles world-wide, of which smart-phones account for less than 4%. 1.5 billion email accounts world-wide. And how may mobile email users do we have so far? 10M at best!!

How come no one is questioning this? As critical as email is in our life these days, why is it that only half-a-percent of email users find mobile email appealing?

My take is that mobile email, as is on offer currently… is targeted at high-end users, having high-end devices, requiring high-end email infrastructures – not to mention the ongoing high-cost of using it (data plans, license fees etc.) Many services which claim to be “mobile email for masses” require downloading and installing a client on the phone – requiring mostly a smart-phone and an entry level data-plan.

The above pretty much rules out users in emerging economies… Where internet connectivity and computers are not pervasive. Where people have mobile phones but still continue to use cyber cafe’s to access email. Where “value-for-money” is paramount. Where people have browsing capabilities on the phone but data-plans are still expensive. These, accordingly to me, are people who will find great use for mobile email… provided its adoption and usage costs are attractive.

It is with this scenario in mind that our service MeOnGo was developed and launched. A comprehensive PULL mobile email service that works purely in the mobile’s browser. Nothing to download, nothing to install and no complicated setups – simply go to the m.MeOnGo.com, enter your email address, password and get going.

The service is designed ground-up to work with any mobile… whether it is an old GPRS phone with only WML support or a cutting-edge smart-phone. The service, though free, provides comprehensive email functionality… there is support for multiple mailboxes, viewing of attachments, SMS alerts for new emails and much more.

In the ongoing debate of Pull vs. Push… Pull would surely fit the bill of Clayton Christensen’s definition of “Disruptive Technology”…

A new, possibly lower performance, but less expensive product that addresses an existing market. The disruptive technology starts by gaining a foothold in the low-end, and less demanding, part of the market, then moves up-market through performance improvements, and finally displaces an incumbent’s product.

Check out http://www.redoxygen.com. You dont need blackberry. There are 2.3 BILLION SMS enabled mobile phones and there are 5-6 million Blackberry, most are in North America.

Cheers,

Tom

Quite informative article. I do work in this industry myself and have some experience in this topic, but I do not agree with you in 100%. However, you made some good points too

Actually, the implementation is more of a “smart pull” then an actual push, but Microsoft markets it as “push” email.

The real benefit is that it is a free upgrade. If your are running Exchange server (either in-house or hosted) and have a Windows Mobile SmartPhone, you get “push” email without the added cost of a Blackberry Enterprise Server or GoodMail server and no extra monthly service fees ($30/month or more!) other than a basic data plan from your mobile carrier.

Since some decent phones like the Treo700w and 700wx, the Motorola Q, Sprint/Verizon 6700, and others run Windows mobile, there’s a fair amount or choice of phone/carrier to avoid the “Blackberry tax” and the “IMAP/POP kluge” alternatives to true push/pull email.

Blackberry is in a precarious position – much like Apple versus PC’s in the early ’80s they may be the “best” but their high cost/proprietary protocols has made them enemy #1 and with both Microsoft and general IMAP solutions, they better wise up or they’ll end up circling the wagons and defending their eroding base to become a footmark in the history of mobile email/data services.

Another super simple approach that I like is using a server side ruleset and an sms alert to notify me when important clients email me.

The key is to realise that you don’t need a BlackBerry (or any other proprietary technology based handset) to fulfill that requirement. Just an email provider and handset email client that support some key Open Standards like IMAP-IDLE (for the ‘push’) and SIEVE filtering (for the ‘notify me of email from person X but not from person Y’ situations).

But just as important as getting the email delivered when you want it/need it is being able to actually do something constructive with it. Effective handling of email using a device with limited bandwidth and limited storage is something that’s often overlooked.

Thankfully it hasn’t been overlooked by the IETF who have recently published standards extensions to IMAP and SMTP address both ‘push’ and handling issues (like bandwidth efficiency, forwarding an email without downloading it to the handset, and bandwidth efficient re-connections/re-sync in the event of a dropped signal).

The extensions are known by the acronym LEMONADE, and I know for a fact that major server and client software companies are working to integrate these standards into their products. I should declare an interest here, I work for an email server company, Isode – we released our LEMONADE compliant servers (the first) 2 weeks ago and are active in the IETF group along with Nokia, Sun, Nortel, Oracle and many others.

I know this sounds like a bit of an advert but if you want to know more about LEMONADE, go to http://www.lemonadeformobiles.com. Isode’s site is, unsurprisingly, at http://www.isode.com.