Years ago, the POP3 and IMAP e-mail standards were a distant dream. So IT personnel often had to deal with corporate e-mail systems that lacked the protocols to coexist coherently. As with desktop e-mail then, so is wireless e-mail today.

Frequently, mobile e-mail systems only support one client or device platform even though standardizing on a single PDA, smartphone or cell phone can be unrealistic for a company.

That's why a vendor like Research In Motion would go ahead and create a program like BlackBerry Built-In, announced this morning, which extends RIM's e-mail and data services to other devices and platforms beside its own BlackBerry Wireless Handhelds.

It is also why Cingular Wireless today launched Xpress Mail Enterprise Edition and Xpress Mail Network Edition, both based on software by SEVEN.

Cingular, which carries BlackBerries for its wireless network, already offers a version of Xpress Mail for RIM's mobile devices. There is also XpressMail GoodLink Edition for corporate email on Good Technologies G100 wireless handheld. Unlike Cingular's new offerings, these other two are examples of ones that are platform specific.

Like RIM's BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Xpress Mail Enterprise Edition is for large organizations, and like BlackBerry Web Client, Xpress Mail Network Edition is a hosted e-mail service for small companies and individuals.

As with RIM's wireless services, Xpress Mail allows for secure push-based access to e-mail, personal information management data and other internal intranet information. Xpress Mail Enterprise Edition puts a dedicated wireless mail server behind the corporate firewall, while Cingular Wireless manages Xpress Mail Network Edition remotely.

Key features of Xpress Mail include support Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino, IMAP and POP e-mail, personal contacts, global directories and documents; over-the-air synchronization; multiple inboxes; the ability to check e-mail from any PC browser; and 128-bit AES, SSL and VPN security.

According to SEVEN documentation, Xpress Mail supports a variety of PDA, mobile phone and smartphone platforms, including BREW, J2ME, Pocket PC, Smartphone 2003, Palm and Symbian.

Nevertheless, Cingular is touting Xpress Mail as being available now for the palmOne Treo 600 smartphone, its first quad-band (850/900/1800/1900) GSM/GPRS mobile handset.