Zatni Arbi, Contributor, Jakarta | Mon, 05/18/2009 10:54 AM | Sci-Tech

Email on the go is a boon to mobile professionals and travelers. In the past, before I had my first BlackBerry, I had to spend a lot of money to get Internet access in my hotel room.

On average, 24-hour Internet access costs around US$20 in many cities in the Asia Pacific. And, then again, I used it only for eight hours at the most, as I could use it only in the room.

Then I had the BlackBerry. All the incoming email messages that arrived at my CBN mailbox would be delivered to the device. I was able to read them and respond to them immediately if necessary.

There was no longer any need for the rush to find the Ethernet cable in my hotel room and plug it into my notebook or to go out and find an Internet café to check my email. With push email, I can now be closer to being in two places at one time.

That is the kind of power of email that Nokia has recognized. No wonder they have set up a group that handles messaging for the masses, which is headed by Tom Furlong. Tom’s official position is senior vice president and general manager for consumer messaging, service and software.

The group, which is part of Nokia’s service organization, is responsible for the development of consumer email, instant messaging and, in the future, social network participation on Nokia devices.

Recently I had the opportunity to have a teleconference interview with him. “Why call it consumer messaging?” was my first question.

“Other mobile email services are targeted to the upper segment of the users. At Nokia, we aim at bringing email messaging to millions of users around the world, not only company executives and other corporate users,” he answered.

According to Tom, people in the majority of the developing world are having their first Internet experience on their mobile devices.

So the company’s vision is to enable mobile phone users to set up their first digital ID and then start enjoying the Internet experience without having to go to an Internet café or find a desktop PC to create their email accounts. It should be so easy that they should be able to do it right from their devices.

Needless to say, as my personal experience has shown, push email is the heart of the messaging for the masses. Nokia Messaging is the push email service provided by Nokia to make messaging more effective.

“At the moment, it is available in 16 S60 devices,” said Tom. “By the end of the year, every S60 and a very large portion of S40 devices will have the capability,” he added.

The idea is that a mobile phone user can choose whichever model he or she prefers, and the Finnish company will provide the email and Web browsing capability on it.

To expedite the realization of this “messaging for the masses” vision, Nokia has also acquired two companies, namely, Intellisync and OZ Communications.

Intellisync, which was acquired three years ago, was strong in platform-independent, enterprise solutions for wireless messaging and applications for mobile devices.

Meanwhile, the recently acquired OZ Communications has an excellent consumer messaging suite, which includes email, instant messaging and the ability to attach to social networks.

Thus, in about two years from now, it is very likely that we will no longer be limited to 160 characters per SMS. Email is accessible anywhere there is network coverage. The technology developed by OZ Communications, for example, also reduces the data rates required to deliver the email messages, drives the operator cost down and makes the subscription more affordable to the masses.

There will be no need to locate the nearest public hotspot or pay for the expensive broadband access in the hotel rooms.

With email for the masses, more opportunities will emerge, and it will be even easier to connect to other people around the world.

The question is, will Nokia’s move be followed by others such as BlackBerry?

Source : www.thejakartapost.com