Now everyone want to duplicate the success of Blackberry's push technology, especially the phone manufacturers. They lose a potential revenue source when customers use Blackberries for email delivery instead of their phones.
Further, I should point out that the business model for cell phones in the United States differs than that in Europe. In Europe, customers look for the most number of SMS messages in their "bucket" that they can use each month. In the United States, we look for the most number of voice minutes in our monthly bucket. It's quite interesting in that all SMS really is.. is a form of email. it's Europe's version of the Blackberry, and European carriers make a killing on SMS revenue!
U.S. based service providers, carriers, etc. are starting to catch on to the fact that 100% all-the-time access to email is critical for providing a revenue source, as well as have better customer retention. As such, I found this new release as further evidence towards the trend of "push email" technnology.
(p.s. I'm still waiting for Microsoft to get this right with their PocketPCs. Maybe an OS upgrade will solve the issue. I love my PocketPc for GPS and Internet browsing, but again email capability leaves a lot to be desired)
VISTO ANNOUNCES VISTO MOBILE 5.0™ ON SYMBIAN OS™
New Sony Ericsson P910 smartphone powered by Symbian OS among first devices with support for Visto’s breakthrough solution for over-the-air email, calendar, and contacts push
Symbian Expo, London, UK, October 5th, 2004) - At Symbian Expo today, breakthrough mobile email company, Visto, announced that the Sony Ericsson P910 is among the first mobile phones to support Visto Mobile 5.0, Visto’s next generation platform for push-based real-time over-the-air email, coupled with constantly updated calendar and contact information. Symbian OS is the global market leading open operating system for smartphones.
Visto Mobile 5.0 on Symbian OS means that a wide range of mobile devices will be able to instantly synchronise email, calendar, and contacts with individual PCs or corporate messaging servers. The breakthrough is delivered by Visto’s unique “ConstantSync” technology, which allows the Visto Mobile 5.0 solution to push email, calendar, and contact updates to mobile devices instantly, securely, and with minimum over-the-air data consumption.
Visto’s ConstantSync technology also ensures that new messages, message replies, and calendar or contact updates made on mobile phones are updated on the PC or corporate messaging server automatically and instantly with absolute synchronicity between the user’s Inbox, Sent Items, and Deleted Items folders.
Sony Ericsson’s new P910 smartphone, which has started shipping in selected markets this month, will be the first Symbian OS smartphone supported by Visto Mobile 5.0 and its ConstantSync technology.
Brian Bogosian, Chairman and CEO of Visto said: “We are seeing strong interest from European and global operators, partners and users for push-based mobile email/PIM solutions on devices that mirror phone and PDA functions, in a familiar format, and from the recognised leaders in the market. The push capabilities of Visto Mobile 5.0, running on the Symbian OS and on a device like the Sony Ericsson P910 meets all these criteria. With this combination we will accelerate market demand for smartphones amongst business users and consumers exponentially.”
“We’re pleased that Visto is launching and demonstrating Mobile 5.0 on the Sony Ericsson P910 at Symbian Expo today, our annual trade show which is completely dedicated to the entire smartphone industry, said Marit Doving, executive vice president, marketing, Symbian. “Visto 5.0 on Symbian OS phones enables users to enjoy convenient, easy-to-use communications through email, calendar and contact information synchronized automatically over-the-air with Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes servers;”
Henrik Voigt, Senior Manager Enterprise Alliances at Sony Ericsson said: “Our customers want secure and instant access to their email, calendar, and contacts and they want a device that combines the best elements of a phone and a PDA without compromising usability or size. The Sony Ericsson P910 with its unique flip-down QWERTY keypad and Visto’s ConstantSync technology does exactly that and allows users to have a complete messaging experience where they are able to easily compose or reply to messages or open, view and edit message attachments.”
About Symbian
Symbian is a software licensing company that develops and licenses Symbian OS, the global open industry standard operating system for advanced, data-enabled mobile phones.
Symbian licenses Symbian OS to the world’s leading handset manufacturers. The following Symbian OS licensees have Symbian OS-based mobile phones in production and development: Arima, BenQ, Fujitsu for NTT DoCoMo FOMA, LG, Lenovo, Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic, Sendo, Siemens, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. In 2003, over 6.67 million Symbian OS-based mobile phones were sold worldwide and more than 15 million have been sold to date.
Visto announces Visto mobile 5.0 on Symbian OS / …3
About Visto
Visto is the leading provider of wireless messaging and collaboration solutions to mobile operators for the broadest set of mobile device platforms and markets. Visto is opening up the mass market for wireless messaging and collaboration by providing a broad and open, carrier-grade, global solution for mobile operators targeting enterprises and mobile professionals, providing mobile operators with a single scalable solution. Visto's customized, brandable solutions are available through mobile operators worldwide and are used by AT&T Wireless, Bell Mobility, KPN, Manitoba Telecom Services, Nextel Communications, Inc., Rogers Wireless, SaskTel Mobility, SmarTone and TELUS Mobility.
Established in 1996 and headquartered in Redwood Shores, California, Visto is backed by Oak Investment Partners, VantagePoint Venture Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Rustic Canyon Ventures, Allegis Capital and Blueprint Ventures. For more information, visit www.visto.com or email sales@visto.com.
A couple of months ago I got me a new v300 Motorola cell phone. It was a nice little gadget, which provided sufficient, though limited, web browsing functionality, as well as excellent voice quality.
I signed up for the $10, minimal data package and life seemed to be perfect.
But as usual, mysterious are the ways of destiny.
Last week a colleague of mine was heading to Africa. Wishing to make sure he would be able to keep in touch with the office, we sent our admin to the nearest Rogers store.
She returned with a BlackBerry 7290 which the guy seemed to dislike from the very first moment.
That was when it all started.
I don’t know what was it that had gotten into me, but noticing his long face, I did the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, and offered him to swap phones. I guess I couldn’t resist the “e-mail, phone, SMS, organizer, web and corporate data applications in a single handheld” appeal.
All excited, I called the Rogers call center and joyfully broke the news to them of the new avenue in life I was pursuing.
The transaction was smooth and swift, and even the new price plan (40$ a month for 1 megabyte) was not something that could stand between my and the promised data-land.
All energized I started my life as a proud blackberry owner by launching the web browser, and keyed in the “Outlook web Access” address for our exchange server.
The status bar was climbing cheerfully, and after a couple of seconds, I got the “call your ISP” message.
I was thinking, “OK, the Rogers folks are nice people. Let’s give them a call.”
“Hmm, is it an HTTPS address you’re trying to access? Try the WAP browser,” was the support woman’s advice.
OK, I know the WAP browser usually works with WAP application, but the Rogers woman sounded so confident.
I launched the WAP browser, and true, this time the friendly “call your ISP” advice did not appear. Instead I got the unencouraging “end of page” message.
“Very interesting”, I think to myself, while re-dialing the Rogers call center.
“You are right,” said the male voice on the other end of the line. “The WAP browser works only with the WAP application. Your problem is that the standard browser does not yet support the HTTPS protocol”.
OK, the lean and mean booklet mentions something about “mail integration”.
“No problem” says the tech-support guy. “You either install blackberry’s enterprise server or desktop integration.”
Realizing that the BB server might be somewhat of a challenge (a $5000 one user license bargain) I decide to give the desktop alternative a chance.
Ring, ring, I call the call center again, and the operator tells me, “If you register with the Rogers BlackBerry Network, all emails will be automatically forwarded to your BlackBerry device.”
I ask the operator, “Are the kb it takes up part of the one mb I received with my original plan?”
And the operator said, “Yes.”
“And what happens if I consume the one mb?”
”You either pay for the additional kb or sign up for a $60 unlimited plan” (remember, I started of with that $10 plan on my “midget” Motorola”
“And what if I don’t want all my emails automatically forwarded to my BlackBerry? What if I want to exercise my own intelligence and select by myself which emails I open up?”
“No problem,” was the operator’s reply, and we ended our conversation.
I thought to myself, “Great, I’ll integrate my gmail account onto my BlackBerry as well!”
I launch the browser application and attempt unsuccessfully to log into my gmail account. The mysterious “Call Your ISP” advice pops up again. So I call the call center…again.
This time a lady tells me “write www.gmail.com, instead of just gmail.com”
I don’t think you need to be explained that this was a fruitless attempt.
By this point I’m really started to feel that frustration. This time I call the call center and tell them furiously, “Cancel the BlackBerry data price plan!”
And so my BlackBerry data package was cancelled, and so I was stuck with a bulky, useless, good-for-nothing, lousy sound quality piece of plastic.
“At least,” I was thinking, “I’ll be able to do some basic browsing using the standard GPRS service” (5¢ per kb). But you can guess what message popped up.
Final verdict, hideous,big & bulky,hard to set up,terrible support, I keep accidentally hitting the 'disconnect' button while trying to answer incoming calls.
Both the Blackberry and Rogers site were awful - no help.
This device also has worse reception than my Motorola.
There is no support at all, once you buy it, you are on your own. Manual is terrible, online help terrible too.
The Rogers tech support team didn't seem to know what they were doing.
Nice try Blackberry, but so far, a huge disappointment.
If you aren’t a heavy e-mail user stay away. Avoid the frustration and extremely expensive service.
Most users I’ve noted are: heavy email users, don’t use it as a phone, don’t have to pay the outrages monthly fees (i.e. they are corporate users).
I’m just a humble cost-conscious casual user, I hate to be robbed and I demand quality tech support.
This apparently was not the case.
For alternatives, read the recent Businessweek article: When a BlackBerry Is Overkill
BusinessWeek
http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?s=725168bfee61f1af6347825907df4cfe&threadid=54547