Click to View

Ten days ago DataViz brought Microsoft's push e-mail and data synchronization solution to Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition smartphones. Today the developer's Exchange ActiveSync client, RoadSync, is now available for Symbian devices that run the S60 3rd Edition interface—the most popular smartphone platform in the world. These include Nokia's hot Nseries multimedia handsets and just-shipping (in Europe and Asia, but soon k in America) Eseries business models, including the highly-anticipated E61 Blackberry/Motorola Q/Palm Treo competitor.

"We are excited to continue broadening our offerings to the Nokia ecosystem by providing owners of these new S60 smartphones access to our Exchange ActiveSync solution," said Bonnie Boyle, DataViz Senior Business Manager.

DataViz first licensed the Exchange ActiveSync technology from Microsoft to integrate into its RoadSync solution back in March 2005. RoadSync for S60 provides the same mobile access to corporate e-mail as Windows Mobile handset users, in addition to wireless synchronization of PIM (calendar, contacts, and tasks) data with Exchange Server 2003. Administrators can also remotely wipe data from a lost device, and users have the ability access a corporate contact list wirelessly.

Microsoft started providing push e-mail support to Exchange on the backend last fall with Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2), and developed on-device client software for the technology this past February for Windows Mobile 5.0 PDAs and smartphones - hence DataViz's filling the gap with a product for the plethora of older WinMob 2003 devices still around.

In fact, DataViz even released RoadSync 2, its Exchange Server ActiveSync-enabled client for S80 Nokia smartphones, like the 9300 and 9500, the week before Microsoft completed its push e-mail puzzle for Windows Mobile this past winter; delivering Redmond's own mob-e-mail solution to its chief smartphone competitor a hair before Microsoft did for its own platform.

However a S60 smartphone enters an enterprise, DataViz's Boyle said RoadSync will be there to receive e-mail and information. "Given the wide variety of form factors and styles, it is likely that these S60 devices will make their way into organizations by both corporate or IT initiatives as well as bottom-up employee adoption," he said. "In either case, we are able to provide business customers with a cost-effective, scalable push e-mail solution that can be easily deployed and managed across an entire organization"

And unlike a lot of the Windows Mobile 5.0 devices right now, users won't have to wait for the carrier or manufacturer to offer the Direct Push client (often for free, however) at some later date after purhcase—even Motorola's hot Q communicator doesn't deliver the push e-mail goods out of the box. You can go directly to DataViz's Web site and buy RoadSync for S60 for $99.99 immediately.

Converged devices (smartphones and cellular-enabled handhelds) continue to drive the smart mobile device market forward, with 75 percent year-over-year growth, according to Canalys. The status quo, platform-wise, maintained, with Symbian's global smart mobile device dominance growing and not shrinking - as some indicated might begin to happen - hitting a new high of 69 percent (up from 61.4 percent), followed by Microsoft's mobile platforms with 12 percent.