One of the world’s biggest mobile operators Vodafone has teamed up with software giant Microsoft to roll out a new push email service based on Microsoft’s new Windows Mobile 5.0 platform that could create a serious rival for BlackBerry in the mobile messaging market.
This solution incorporates the Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP), which includes Direct Push Technology and enhanced security features.
From March Vodafone will deploy a range of Windows Mobile 5.0-powered devices with Direct Push Technology to corporate and small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers in France, Germany and the UK. The service will also be available to corporate and SMB customers in other countries, including Ireland, during 2006.
Windows Mobile Email from Vodafone, the company says, will enable customers to enjoy a Direct Push email service on the move in a format that anyone familiar with Microsoft Office will recognize. Emails and tasks are synchronized directly from Outlook, and Microsoft Office Excel Mobile and Word Mobile attachments can be viewed, edited and returned.
Having a common email experience across the PC and Vodafone Windows Mobile-powered device makes service adoption simple and accelerates delivery of the benefits that mobile email brings to business customers, explained Peter Bamford, chief marketing officer at Vodafone.
“Mobile email is a simple, security-enhanced and easy to set up service which enables customers to remain productive, responsive and organised when out of the office,” said Bamford. “Windows Mobile Email from Vodafone delivers a mobile email service which seamlessly extends the Microsoft Office desktop environment and rapidly captures the benefits for business that mobile email brings.”
Windows Mobile Email from Vodafone will be available across a range of devices including the Vodafone v1240 and Vodafone v1640. Additional handsets will be made available at local level, the company said this afternoon.
Pieter Knook, senior vice-president, Mobile and Embedded Devices Division and Communications Sector at Microsoft, commented: “It’s an exciting time for companies who are now realising the true business potential of mobile solutions for both the business and for their employees. Our combined teams are focused on delivering the most compelling and innovative mobile solutions to meet these customer demands.”
By John Kennedy
