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AnchorDesk

Patrick Houston
Want wireless e-mail? Here's some Good news

Patrick Houston
Editorial Director, AnchorDesk
Wednesday, May 28, 2003
TalkBack!Add your opinion
Do you wish you could get your corporate e-mail delivered to your cell phone or PDA? I know I do. And I suspect I'm part of an increasingly frustrated silent majority.

Why the frustration? Because there's no sufficiently easy way to make that mobile e-mail happen--too many companies simply don't yet support it.

If yours doesn't, you're on your own. You can try to do it yourself, but it's a lot of trouble. If your company does support wireless e-mail, chances are it's a one-size-fits-all solution. Mine, for example, has deployed BlackBerry devices from Research In Motion. Many of my colleagues love them. But I gave mine up. The reason: I have--and habitually use--a laptop, cell phone, and Pocket PC device. I just couldn't bear the thought of toting around a fourth gadget--it'd be just one more thing to misplace.

All this is why I've been watching a three-year-old startup company called Good Technology. It offers a wireless e-mail solution that it claims is far more flexible, and far less painful, than other options. Good's software works with your company's Microsoft Exchange server to constantly deliver e-mail to your PDA and synchronize your calendar, contacts, tasks, and notes--all without forcing you to stick your device into a cradle.

What's more, last month Good announced a have-it-your-way strategy. Right now, its software and service work only with a few RIM devices or its own G100 handheld, and only through Cingular's Mobitex paging network. But by the end of this year, Good says its system will work on Palm and Pocket PC devices over much faster 2.5 and 3G networks from a variety of cell phone providers.

I sat down with Good CEO Danny Shader recently. You can hear what he had to say for himself in this video interview.

Shader's company, I'm obliged to note, is up against some big odds. Its main rival, Research In Motion, has a huge head start in the market and a sizable base of devoted users. Good also faces competition from cell phone makers, network providers, and Microsoft itself, all of whom see dollar signs in getting your corporate e-mail to your wireless handheld.



Pat talks with Good Technology CEO Danny Shader about the company's plans to compete in the mobile computing market.
 Watch now
That being said, though, if Good succeeds, it could be great news for those of us who want wireless e-mail the way we want it, not the way it's forced on us.

* * *

I've been trying out Sprint's new high-speed wireless data network lately. It's based on Qualcomm's CDMA2000 1XRTT technology (as opposed to the GSM-GPRS technology being deployed by AT&T Wireless and most other cell phone carriers around the world). This test-drive follows a similar experiment with Verizon's CDMA2000 network, the results of which I reported in a column last February.

Sprint and Verizon's networks are both 3G, capable of throughput speeds as high as 144kbps. In my tests, using the networks primarily on my workaday San Francisco Bay Area train commute, I found Sprint's service to be faster and more robust than Verizon's. With Sprint I enjoyed connection speeds of about 70kbps on the moving train, as compared to about 46kbps with Verizon's Express Network.

While these 3G connections were far slower than those I'm used to at work or at home, they're nevertheless quick enough to be useful. Both provided me with Internet connectivity adequate enough to use my commute time more fruitfully. These new networks aren't cheap--they cost about $100 a month for unlimited access. But they merit consideration, especially for highly mobile workers whose productivity gains could offset the fees.

* * *

While I liked Sprint's 3G network, I didn't like the Palm OS-based Samsung SPH-i330 phone Sprint provided for my test drive. I consider PDA/phone combos like this one to be increasingly viable solutions, particularly for business users, yet the i330's design just didn't work for me. For one, the display was too small to take advantage of the rich content Sprint's network can deliver. Also, I found it unduly easy to accidentally press the i330's buttons, leading me, for example, to unintentionally activate the phone and run down the battery.

* * *

Have you heard of ad hoc networks yet? Also known as personal area networks, or PANs, I'm encountering them more and more. You can set up such a peer-to-peer network via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It won't necessarily give you access to the Internet via a LAN or WAN, but it will give you access to nearby coworkers or friends.

Nokia's new N-Gage mobile game player and cell phone, for example, allows players to challenge each other by setting up a wireless local area network. In a column last week, I told you about the CEO I know who used such a network to work with his colleagues on a plane. I'm wondering whether such ad hoc wireless networks will pave the way for new forms of business collaboration. Have any of you heard of any such uses? Tell me in the TalkBack section.

* * *

Finally, my apologies to Dr. Rebecca Grinter, a researcher from Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. I named her in my Tuesday column, but mistakenly identified her as Judith. The mistake has since been fixed but I still regret the error.

What do you think? Would you like to be able to get corporate e-mail on your handheld? Have you tried any high-speed wireless data networks? TalkBack to me! 

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