Microsoft Push Email to push Blackberry, others behind

Microsoft has joined hands with major cellular operators for the new generation of mobile phones enabling users to recieve email when it hits servers instead of getting it when they synchronise with their servers. The new service from microsoft does not require additional licenses or separate servers unlike Blackberry and others who are much ahead than microsoft in this arena.

The partnerships, with operators including Vodafone and Cingular, to be announced Monday at a mobile industry gathering in Spain, could spell more trouble for the embattled Blackberry, Food Technology and other companies providing similar services.

"We look at the universe out there and we know there is just a huge, huge opportunity yet to be met," Microsoft Vice President Suzan DelBene said in a telephone interview on Friday.

According to Microsoft, Direct Push technology added to Windows Mobile 5.0 gives customers faster access to all of their Microsoft Office Outlook information. Just like prior versions of Windows Mobile, it communicates directly with Microsoft Exchange Server and Windows Small Business Server without the need for additional and costly e-mail servers and middleware.

The software which is available as an upgrade called Messaging and Security Feature Pack is available to all Cingular Wireless, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone users. The upgrade enables direct push functionality and enhances device management and security for messaging applications.

On the opening day of the 3GSM phone show in Spain on Monday, Hewlett-Packard and three other handset makers are expected to launch the first Windows smartphones equipped with the new email technology out of the box.

"At the end of the year, many will be asking themselves whether they really needed a Blackberry handset from RIM to check mail - and RIM might be asking themselves what went wrong," Strand Consult, a Denmark based IT research house wrote in a research note.

"Microsoft will most probably overtake RIM as the leading mobile email provider."