I asked Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of mobile email software company, Synchronica, (the first company to synchronise the original iPhone with Microsoft Exchange without needing to jailbreak the device), to give us his perspective on the latest iPhone launch.
According to Brinkschulte, the newly launched 3G Apple iPhone is an indication that applications will be key in the battle for Smartphone market share:
“Apple’s recent announcement to offer a hosted webmail, calendar, address book combined with push Email and synchronization capabilities is yet another sign that increasingly, device manufacturers are becoming service providers. Nokia, which still dominates the Smartphone market, is executing a similar strategy with the OVI portal.” he says.
As a further demonstration of this trend, Synchronica has announced a major deal with a leading Chinese device manufacturer, which will use Synchronica’s middleware to offer a hosted push Email and synchronisation service on its devices:
“In contrast to Apple’s approach,” he continues, “Synchronica’s Mobile Gateway is based on open industry standards (IMAP, SyncML) and works the vast majority of Smartphones and mass-market mobile phones, without needing to install additional client software on the device. This makes Mobile Gateway a compelling choice for service providers (both mobile operators and device manufacturers) if they don’t have an exclusive contract with Apple and want to offer a ‘MobileMe’ for the ‘rest of us’.”
(If, by the way, you’re wondering how Synchronica managed to do the Exchange synchronisation: They achieved this by synchronising with the IMAP email client that was already built into the iPhone!
A bit of background on Synchronica:
Synchronica plc develops and markets industry standard mobile email and synchronization solutions for the vast majority of devices in the market today. Mobile operators, device manufacturers and service providers in emerging and developed markets use Synchronica products to offer mobile email, PIM synchronization and backup & restore services to their consumer and corporate customer base. Products include the push email and synchronization solution Mobile Gateway and the mass-market device backup solution Mobile Backup. Headquartered in the UK with a development centre in Germany and a presence in Hong Kong, Dubai and U.S. Synchronica plc is a public company traded on the AIM list of the London Stock Exchange (SYNC.LN).
