YAHOO/SPRINT EMAIL DEAL HEATS UP U.S. MOBILE MESSAGING MARKET: TRYING TO EAT RIM'S LUNCH
Why is it that I have to go to UK and international reports to find out what's really what in the US marketplace? This morning I turned to a story by Graeme Wearden. in ZDNET UK "Mobile email market hots up" to learn more about how Yahoo is following Microsoft in attempting to duplicate the success of the Blackberry. Here's an excerpt from that piece tht explains that Yahoo's new "Mail for Mobile Devices" service being offered by Sprint is provided in partnership with US developer Seven --nowhere on the Sprint/Yahoo press release did it say anything about Seven.
Why is that important-- because Seven has deals with Asian and European carriers and that brings this announcement into potential world-wide impact. Here is the report from ZDNET UK: "The storming success of Research In Motion's Blackberry appears to have tempted both Microsoft and Yahoo to compete with it in the mobile email space. Yahoo launched on Wednesday a product called Mail for Mobile Devices, in partnership with US mobile software developer Seven. This will automatically send new messages out to Yahoo email users who have a Sprint mobile device, and will also let them access old messages and their address book Initially, the service will just be available in the US, but it appears that Yahoo has a global rollout in mind. In a statement accompanying the product launch....here's the link to the rest of that ZDNet story Mobile email market hots up. Comment on those out to eat RIM's Lunch: Asked for a comment on this deal by imediaconnection.com where I am a frequent contributor I gave them this quote for tomorrow's edition: "The mobile email race is heating up. Yahoo, the preferred provider for mobile email in the US is strengthening it's hold on the marketplace with it's new service to Sprint PCS customers. The pricing of flat rate at $2.99 a month for carrier-based push email is 1/10th of the price of RIM's Blackberry Connect. Suddenly a new ballpark of players are out to eat RIM's lunch. Couple the Yahoo/Sprint announcement with recent advisories from Microsoft licensing its Exchange push software to Nokia and Symbian and Cingular's announcement in late May that it will offer businesses always-on email access with GoodLink's server.and the mobile messaging arena is finally looking like it's entered the 21st Century," explains Joyce Schwarz, emerging technology and entertainment analyst and frequent contributor to imediaconnection.com. |
For some reason I cannot delete this UK Orange ad from this post-- note they are not an advertiser but since I can't delete them, I'll include it as an editorial post so you can see what's happening in UK with mobile email.
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