Wireless email to be built in to all smartphones

Apr 13, 2005: IT departments should plan now for the ubiquity of wireless email on supported handheld devices, as wireless email will be a built-in application on all smartphones by the end of 2008.

That is according to Gartner analysts, who presented the future of wireless applications during the analyst group's Wireless & Mobile Summit, which is being held this week in Los Angeles. Gartner analysts said wireless email is becoming a mainstream application alongside mobile voice communications, but the variance between those who can communicate via voice and those who can communicate via email is still significant.

"Operators are reluctant to permit widespread messaging access to their networks without collecting fees from those who send such messages, such as spam," said Ken Dulaney, vice president and analyst at Gartner. "However, operators will lose this battle the same way that telecommunications companies lost the battle against an open Internet."

Gartner believes that at the present time, wireless email adoption is limited by high monthly prices charged by operators for data services for Research In Motion's Blackberry, combined with a poor understanding of the key benefits of wireless email to the organisation. Gartner analysts said this is no different from the early days of mobile voice. The period from invention of mobile voice to mass adoption was lengthy, but mass adoption of mobile email should be much faster.

While some companies may have difficulty justifying wireless email on its own, it does have an impact on the frequency of use of other types of communications. If traffic transference can be established, the adoption of wireless email may be cost neutral.

"One of the first places to examine is whether wireless email will reduce some of the voice minutes," said Dulaney. "For example, a business manager might see voicemails dropping precipitously and find real benefits to the fact that messages can be forwarded easily inside and outside the organisation. The overall cost per message delivered is likely to be lower, given the theory that most phone calls are several minutes long and include the time to connect to the person called."

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