PR releases

3GSM: Synchronica Brings Mobile eMail to Mass Market with Push IMAP and SyncML

The new Mobile Gateway 3.0 supports Push eMail and synchronization with the widest range of phones on the market.

February 7, 2007 -- Synchronica plc, an international provider of mobile synchronization and device management solutions, has integrated Push IMAP functionality into Mobile Gateway 3.0 (formerly SyncML Gateway) enabling service providers to bring push email to the widest range of mobile devices on the market. Synchronica believes that this will set the stage for mobile email to replace SMS messages as the communication medium of choice for prosumers and consumers.

Synchronica estimates that the number of consumers and prosumers using mobile email will outnumber business users in 2008 and enjoy exceptional growth thereafter. While proprietary solutions, such as RIM's Blackberry and Visto, may continue to be popular with business users, Synchronica believes that the mass market requires industry standard based solutions and thus will see a different breed of vendors succeed.

Delivering push email to prosumers and consumers requires support for mass market devices from a wide variety of manufacturers. However, proprietary push email solutions require special client software to be installed on the device and are mostly limited to high-end smartphones - a small fraction of the mobile phone market. In contrast, industry standard solutions like Synchronica's Mobile Gateway do not require additional software installation on the device and instead use the built-in email and synchronization clients addressing the vast majority of devices.
Synchronica is among the first to combine both SyncML (OMA DS), which is optimized for synchronization of calendar and contacts, and Push IMAP (LEMONADE) which is optimized for mobile email. While SyncML is supported by the majority of devices in the market, it is limited in delivering email since only a small number of devices support email synchronization over SyncML. On the other hand, millions of devices support email over IMAP, but IMAP does not support calendar or contact synchronization. Thus, combining Push IMAP for mobile email with SyncML for synchronization of calendar and contacts provides ideal synergy supporting the widest range of devices.

Commenting on the decision to add support for Push IMAP, Emma Mohr McClune, Senior Analyst Wireless Services Europe at Current Analysis said: "Unlike other vendors that have opted for either Push IMAP or SyncML for mobile email, Synchronica's Mobile Gateway supports both SyncML and Push IMAP, enabling business and consumer users to benefit from the optimization delivered by both technologies."

Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of Synchronica plc, adds: "With such a wealth of mass market devices supporting mobile email now available, the time is right for push email to expand to the prosumer and consumer markets. Virtually every mobile phone user has an email account and most of them by now have an email-enabled device. With the right marketing and technology, push email for the mass market will become the next generation SMS."

Synchronica's Mobile Gateway provides carrier-grade push email and synchronization services for both consumers and business users. Serving consumers, it includes backend support for POP3 and IMAP connecting to popular mail services such as MSN or Yahoo. For business users, it provides a unique zero footprint architecture where users simply register their devices with Mobile Gateway and instantly start to receive email on their devices. No connectors behind the firewall required. It includes built-in support for Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes and Sun JES, thereby reaching the majority of business user mail systems.

About Synchronica

Synchronica plc develops and markets synchronization and device management solutions for mobile operators, device manufacturers and enterprises. Its product portfolio ranges from data synchronization (DS) to device management (DM) and firmware update over the air (FOTA). The company has deployed the world's first live installation of a device management suite in a carrier-grade environment. Products include the mobile device management suite Mobile Manager and the push email and synchronization solution Mobile Gateway. Headquartered in the UK with a development center in Berlin, Synchronica plc is a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange (SYNC.LN). More information is available at http://www.synchronica.com