Research In Motion (RIM) isn't the only game in town when it comes to wireless e-mail. As the technology steps into the mainstream, additional players (e.g. Good Technology, SEVEN, Visto, and Smartner) have also benefited from mob-e-mail's rapid rise.

Microsoft entered the fray last spring by including support for push-based e-mail (the type pioneered by RIM) in its latest handheld operating system, Windows Mobile 5.0. Today, another 600-pound gorilla, Nokia, unveiled its play for businesses wireless e-mail dollars.

As with RIM and Microsoft, the Finnish phone company's solution is push-based. The Nokia Business Center server "pushes" messages to a PDA or smartphone as soon as it arrives. So there is no need for the user to request (or pull) messages down from the server.

Nokia Business Center initially supports mob-e-mail over a number of Nokia handsets, including the 9300 and 9500 communicators, as well as the 6630, 6680, 6681, and 6682 smartphones; all of which are Symbian based. It integrates with an enterprise’s regular mail server, initially Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, but later also Lotus Notes and Domino.

Tale of Two Clients
A free standard Nokia Business Center client offers the ability to compose, read and delete e-mail, manage local folders, and provides support for working offline, in addition to push-email and security features. It supports the English, French, German, Italian and Spanish languages.

The professional client (available for a small upgrade fee) offers all the features of the standard version, adding a richer, graphical e-mail interface that is closer to using desktop e-mail. Additional professional client features include support for handling meeting requests, sorted views, full attachment support, the ability to access any employee's contact information from the company's corporate directory, and the capability to search local folders.

Both e-mail clients can run on any Java MIDP 2.0-capable phone, once Nokia has certified it.

Nokia Business Center should be available in the Americas and EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) regions in the fourth quarter of this year for an unspecified price.

Smart E-Mail
Analyst firm Gartner predicted in April that by 2008 wireless e-mail will become standard fare for all smartphones, existing right alongside voice communications. Nevertheless, even though the trend is towards widespread adoption, in today's climate the difference between those who are able to communicate by means of voice and individuals who can correspond via e-mail is still considerable.

The exorbitant monthly fees charged by carriers for data services are one reason why mobile e-mail adoption rates aren't higher nowadays.

Gartner VP and analyst Ken Dulaney said the high prices exist because "operators are reluctant to permit widespread messaging access to their networks without collecting fees from those who send such messages, such as spam."

He predicted this situation won't last forever, as the carriers " will lose this battle the same way that telecommunications companies lost the battle against an open Internet."

Nokia Not Enough
Shares of Nokia rallied 4.6 percent yesterday after the company raised guidance well above analysts' expectations, but the rest of the market sank on weak retail sales. Nokia attributed its guidance to "stronger than expected mobile device volumes and relatively firm prices."

The Finnish cell phone giant said it expects third-quarter earnings of 22-23 cents a share, above expectations of 20 cents, and sales of $10.25-$10.37 billion would come in well above analysts' $9.95 billion forecast.

Nokia is not only the leading cell phone vendor in the world, it's the number one smart device (PDAs & smartphones combined) vendor too, as measured by analyst firm Canalys . For example, its smartphones and communicators accounted for 82 percent of all devices shipped on that the Symbian platform and 50 percent of all smart device shipments period earlier this year.