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3GSM - Microsoft pushes further into wireless e-mail

15.02.2006
Microsoft Corp. further extended its reach into wireless push e-mail technology this week by naming four carriers and four new Windows Mobile-based smart phones and handhelds that will support its Direct Push technology.

The carriers all said in the announcement from the 3GSM World Conference 2006 in Barcelona that they will provide free upgrades to devices running Windows Mobile 5.0 with Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP) by Microsoft to enable the Direct Push functionality.

Reacting to the announcement today, several business users and IT managers of wireless e-mail from Research In Motion Ltd., said they welcomed the progress that Microsoft has made into wireless e-mail, given NTP Inc.'s ongoing patent lawsuit against RIM's BlackBerry wireless e-mail service.

But users and analysts also said Windows Mobile 5.0 needs to be improved to be widely adopted by end users.

John Halamka, CIO at Caregroup Healthcare System in Boston, supports 500 RIM users and has rigorously tested a Palm Inc. Treo 700w, but has found it wanting when compared to the BlackBerry.

"Direct Push is good, but my experience with all Microsoft mobile technologies is that they are not as easy to use as BlackBerry," he said. RIM's BlackBerry Enterprise Server with Exchange is "already seamless and highly reliable," he said. Yet he called the Microsoft mobile client "clunky."