Users will need to choose between the promise of a wide
range of applications and an established product as Microsoft
launches its push e-mail service at the 3GSM conference in
Barcelona last week.
From next month, users of Vodafone's mobile network will be able
to deploy Windows Mobile 5.0-powered devices with Microsoft's new
push e-mail service, Direct Push, launched by the software house at
the 3GSM conference in Barcelona last week.
Direct Push is pitted against Research in Motion's established
Blackberry push e-mail service, which until now has had the mobile
e-mail market largely to itself. An early sign of the threat from
Microsoft to Blackberry's dominance came this week with the news
that Newham Borough Council is poised to deploy Windows Mobile 5.0
devices.
The launch version of Direct Push will allow business users
running Microsoft Exchange 2003 with Service Pack 2 to synchronise
their Mobile 5.0 handheld devices directly with Outlook.
The service supports e-mail, calendar and contacts address book
synchronisation using Microsoft's built-in Activesync
technology.
Vodafone has said that the service will be available from March
to corporate users and small and medium-sized enterprises in
France, Germany and the UK. It plans to make the service available
to corporate and SME customers in other countries over the course
of 2006.
In his keynote speech at the 3GSM conference, Microsoft chief
executive Steve Ballmer said mobile would be a major focus for the
company this year.
"One of the top priorities of our salesforce around the globe
will really be to drive Windows mobile penetration into the
business market," he said.
Unlike RIM's Blackberry service, Vodafone's Windows mobile
e-mail service will not require users to install and manage an
additional server to handle mobile e-mail. However, Microsoft has
recommended that users upgrade to Windows 2003 service pack 1 to
cope with an increase in the number of connections the server must
handle.
Alongside the push e-mail service, Microsoft used the 3GSM
conference to preview Communicator Mobile, a product designed to
provide users with real-time collaboration across PCs and smart
mobile devices.
Communicator Mobile is one of Microsoft's steps to extending
Live Communications Server. It is due to ship within two
months.
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