Cingular, the largest wireless carrier in the United States based on the number of subscribers, unveiled Mobile Email and Mobile IM (instant messaging), two services that allow users to access their AOL, MSN, and Yahoo email and IM accounts from almost any cell phone.
Users who own email-capable phones can download both the email and IM applications for free. Then after a couple of simple PC-style steps, as opposed to the more complex carrier configuration steps that have in part stymied the growth of cell phone email, users are up and running with their regular email.
“The consumer uses his existing user name and password, and that’s it,” said Skuli Mogensen, chief executive of OZ. “There is no additional information, reading of manuals, or changing of settings.”
Montreal-based OZ developed both the client and server pieces of the technology, which drives Cingular’s Mobile Email and Mobile IM.
This is the first time that
U.S. subscribers can access their regular email services such as Yahoo Mail via their cell phones in this direct fashion with the same steps as on a PC. Consumer email has been accessible via cell phones for some time but configuring the client and the connection required multiple nonintuitive steps, which some believe kept many consumers from adopting the technology. Accessing email on the cell phone required navigating unfamiliar menus and clicking through a number of poorly formatted text-entry spaces and check-boxes.
It also meant getting the email portal vendors such as MSN and AOL on the same page as the cell phone manufacturers and the carriers.
Although they are partners with Cingular, MSN, AOL, and the other various players operate under their own, sometimes mutually exclusive, business rules and technology agendas.
“You needed to get them all on board and you needed a technology vendor who can solve both the client and server issues,” said Mr. Mogensen. “This has proven to be a very complex technology business, and a political challenge. We could not have done it without Cingular driving it.”
Building Non-Voice Apps
Cingular, which has recently upgraded its wireless data capabilities in a number of markets, has been focused on building the pillars under its non-voice applications.
“Email and instant messaging are the ‘killer apps’ of the Internet,” said Jim Ryan, vice president of consumer data services at Cingular Wireless. “Now… we are enabling over 10 million of our existing customers… to get to their existing email and IM services through a set of easy-to-use clients.”
Subscribers pay kilobyte usage charges for Mobile Email, or a per-message charge for IMs. The company has two service bundles. The Media Basic bundle costs $9.99 and includes 200 email messages or IMs per month, while the Media Works bundle costs $19.99 and includes 1,000 messages or IMs a month.
Mail Call from IcelandOZ Communications is a two-year-old, privately held firm that can trace its beginnings back to 1991 in Iceland, where Mr. Mogensen co-founded the company. Back then, OZ was a high-end, 3D graphics company. The company went through a management buyout and re-incorporated in Montreal in 2003, with a new focus. In September 2004, the company attracted a $27.3-million investment from VantagePoint Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in technology and healthcare providers.
“We believe that both IM and email have the potential of gaining 20 percent and more penetration of all mobile subscribers in North America,” said Mr. Mogensen. “Pretty much all mobile subscribers have an email account. When people realize that they don’t have to sign up for a new plan, they get it. Just bingo and you’re on.”