The Wall Street Journal-20080123-RIM Upgrades Email For BlackBerry Users- Features Intended To Keep Company First in Its Market
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RIM Upgrades Email For BlackBerry Users; Features Intended To Keep Company First in Its Market
Research In Motion Ltd. yesterday unveiled features designed to make it easier for users of its BlackBerry device and service to manage their wireless email, hoping to stay ahead of a pack of new competitors trying to chip away at the company's popularity.
With the aim of making mobile emailing more like emailing from a desktop computer, RIM said BlackBerry users will soon be able to edit documents directly from the handheld device and to view messages in their original formatting.
The Waterloo, Ontario, company also said the changes will enable users to retrieve email messages that aren't stored on the device and to check the availability of a colleague before sending a meeting request. The company will also give corporate information-technology departments the ability to wirelessly update the device's software.
RIM says the new features, announced during International Business Machines Corp.'s Lotusphere conference in Orlando, Fla., will be phased into software releases during the first half of the year.
Some of the email features RIM is rolling out are already available through competing mobile-software services, such as Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile. While RIM has withstood competition from rival wireless companies, it faces intensifying competitive challenges. Most significantly, Apple Inc. is trying to drive adoption of its iPhone among business users through advertising. Reinforcing that effort, AT&T Inc., the exclusive U.S. service provider for the iPhone, recently launched a service plan for business users.
In the third quarter of 2007, Apple captured 20% of all U.S. smartphone and cellular PDA shipments, according to research and advisory company Gartner Inc., second to RIM, which held 39%.
David Heit, director of Enterprise Product Management at RIM, says the appeal of the iPhone to business users is unproven. He adds that there is plenty of growth left in the business market as improvements in device memory and faster networks speeds allow the company to introduce features. "This is new territory for everyone," he says. "It is a very dynamic space."
RIM has focused most recently on broadening the appeal of its devices to non-business customers, adding features such as music players and cameras.
As of Dec. 1, 34% of RIM's roughly 12 million subscriber accounts were consumers or small-business users, up from 30% the previous quarter.
