After just five months on the market, European corporate users are
beginning to warm to the Blackberry mobile e-mail service,
according to European mobile-phone operator mmO2 and Research In
Motion (RIM).
Operating on GPRS mobile networks, the Blackberry device, which
looks like a large pager with a keyboard, offers always-on
connections to corporate e-mail inboxes. To date, 250 corporate
customers have signed up for the Blackberry service offered through
mmO2, said company spokesman, David Nicholas.
Enterprise customers using the Blackberry service include Deutsche
Bank, German media conglomerate Bertelsmann and the IT outsourcing
company Science Applications International (SAIC), Nicholas
said.
MmO2 research showed that many employees still spend more than 20%
of their working day tied to their desk dealing with e-mail,
Nicholas said. With the Blackberry service, employees become mobile
and can get out into the field to work with their customers.
Though there are PDAs that have e-mail functionality, they often
only work with a free e-mail account like Microsoft's Hotmail,
Nicholas said. Blackberry, by contrast, can securely connect users
with corporate e-mail, Nicholas said.
"Most of the corporations we're supplying Blackberry to are in the
legal and banking markets. The trials were very successful and in
just five months of operation, mmO2 supplies Blackberry to more
than half of all law firms located within the City of London,"
Nicholas said.
According to Nicholas, the uptake of Blackberry in Europe is
echoing its spread in North America. "Over 13,200 companies in the
US and Canada have signed up to use Blackberry since RIM launched
it in 1999," he said.
In the UK, mmO2 offers the Enterprise Edition of Blackberry for
between £2,000 and £3,000, for server software and 20 licences,
Nicholas said. The Blackberry devices themselves are purchased
separately and cost around £400, he said. The GPRS service costs
run to about £39 per user per month.
MmO2 has also signed agreements with eight independent mobile
partners in the UK to establish a reseller channel for Blackberry,
mmO2 said in a statement. The mobile partners are Advance Visual
Communications, Elcom, Expansys, Lynx Technology, MoboTel, Project
Telecom, PNC Telecom and Wireless Logic, mmO2 said.