[Updated on Nov. 28, 2005]
The other day News.com ran a story about RIM's CEO, Jim Balsillie, saying that “he is not worried about Microsoft's latest assault into his market space.”
My immediate reaction was, uh? Think again… that's not smart, especially if RIM depends so much on MSFT Exchange…
Then two days later, News.com ran another story about RIM revising their new subscriber numbers for the rest of the year after two new BlackBerry models failed to ship on time… The reported lower numbers may be
(this time) due to failure to ship handsets, but RIM's problem (and of any company that depends on Exchange
on the back-end) is called Microsoft.
Since Exchange now offers direct email access to mobile handsets, are the days of 3rd-party mobile email middleware to Exchange numbered? Read this.
The following should be available to any client that supports ActiveSync:
- Access to Exchange
- Exchange Direct Push Technology
- Global Address List (GAL) Lookup
- SecurID Two-factor Authentication to Exchange
The following probably are only available to Windows Mobile clients:
- Remote Wipe
- Device Password Policies
I wonder if the mobile email race on the enterprise will eventually shift mainly to the client side, since overtime (it seems) there
will be no need for middleware to Exchange, of course assuming 1) Exchange delivers its mobile access promises, and 2) client companies license ActiveSync, which they have been doing. It is all a matter of economics.
ceo
Updated in response to Carlo @ MobHappy (Nov 28, 2005):
There are two mobile email business markets: 1) mass, and 2) enterprise.
I totally agree with you with respect to #1. The mass email market is for those business people that don't necessarily use Exchange, but need business email over POP3, etc. In this market, carriers have the advantage, with the help of companies like Visto, Seven, etc.
With respect to #2 which is most of RIM's market, and which is dominated by Exchange, then Domino (these are the large enterprises), is where RIM must watch out. This is the market I was referring to on my post. To address this is why RIM has been licensing their technology like crazy .
I agree there is always room for improvement. I also agree the threat may not be immediate, but the threat is coming. At the same time, if we look at email, basic mobile email services are “good enough”. Imagine that Exchange get to offer push-email for real, and to global contacts, and secure connectivity, and my Nokia and other business phones have “native” support for ActiveSync. There is no need for 3rd party. No need to pay for 3rd party solutions. Please note that I have written and sold mobile email clients, and I can tell you, companies rather not have another middleware to maintain.
If you ask me today, I tend to think the killer mobile email solution is a purely client one, one that connects to the enterprise (and personal) – no or minimal middleware, etc.
Exchange is slowly but surely offering all the basic mobile email features; it is a matter of time before MSFT owns the mobility side of MSFT IT shops, again assuming handset vendors license and offer ActiveSync “natively”.
I would be concerned if I was an (enterprise-focused) mobile email middleware company.
