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Wireless e-mail is becoming increasingly popular, but IT departments in corporate environments must carefully plan which users really require the service, how to manage it, and what architecture to employ when they establish it. A survey of 513 Network Computing readers reports that 70 percent say their company has wireless e-mail, although only 13 percent of those users report widespread adoption. The first decision to make involves the selection of the device. Research In Motion Ltd currently dominates the market with an installed base amounting to 75 percent of the four million devices in use, but many other vendors are rolling out products. RIM's marketing success is based on their optimization of push capabilities, end-to-end security, and integration with most of the major e-mail platforms. Despite a plethora of competing products, however, the Network Computing poll found that the RIM Blackberry continues to be the most wanted device on the market, followed by the Palm Treo and the Microsoft Pocket PC. In an e-mail system, the gateway is a proxy for the mobile client, interacting with other servers and in some cases with a network operations center maintained by the vendor. Experts advise companies to focus on immediate needs when planning a wireless e-mail strategy, since the market is evolving so rapidly that new devices and features will soon emerge.
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Information Sources, Inc.
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