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Peter Judge examines the converging world of sliding screens, folding keyboards and audio technology
If mobile phone companies have their way then emailing via mobile phone will be the next big thing. As one of the biggest revolutions in communications technology, over the last 20 years mobiles have reached many millions around the world.
“Mobile email will change the way we live and work even more than mobile voice,” says T-Mobile’s chief executive Rene Obermann. Since we’ve all got phones now, Obermann and other mobile operators want another money-spinner and email is the obvious next development.
But do we all want it? Until relatively recently it’s been a specialised thing for
a few people who either have technical skills or a lot of technical back-up. There are actually three million people already emailing on the go with Blackberrys. These are toys – sorry, tools – for managers who need to keep in touch and make vital decisions – and look important while they do it. A few other people use mobile email on handheld devices like PDAs with wireless connections, and on bulky phones like the Handspring Treo.
These people are usually in big companies, with IT departments looking after them. For the rest of us, mobile email has been performed by few people, with difficulty and usually in private.
Most new phones have email software on them – along with the camera, the voice recorder, the calculator, and all the other little gimmicks you’ll probably never quite get round to using.
Using email on these involves entering the right settings. This is tricky because the phone manufacturer, phone operator, and email provider are often three different companies. If you can’t get it to work, they all end up blaming each other, and you end up in telephone support hell, phoning all three companies.
What’s more, when your email finally gushes into your phone, the amount of incoming information is too big for the tiny screen to deal with it. There are often delays while you create messages – and bigger bills – when you find the phone has stayed online for long periods sending and receiving. Thankfully all this is set to change, because the major operators across Europe have got behind an easier mode of mobile email.
Firstly, the Blackberry is available for those of us without IT support, from Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile and O2. The versions on offer include one – the 7100 – that looks like an ordinary phone, with a quirky keyboard. For business email, Blackberry gives you a well-managed experience, in a rather conservative package.
Away from Blackberry, O2 is making a big thing of its I-Mode service. Developed in Japan six years ago, I-Mode is mostly about squeezing Web pages into phones, and O2’s new phones all include a button for quick connection to the Internet. The company says it also gives a Blackberry-like email experience on a normal phone.
The O2 I-Mode phones include the NEC N3431 and Samsung S500I on the regular network and a 3G phone, the Samsung Z3201. More important than the phone hardware is the charging method. Instead of charging for the amount of time connected, the charge is for the amount downloaded, costing €1 per kilobyte, after an extended free introductory period.
T-Mobile is not offering any free introduction to its Web’n’walk service, but reckons its mobile internet is as good as the connection you have on your home computer. The company reckons you are paying about €30 for 30MB, 50 free minutes per month, call time and free voicemail.
On this basis, T-Mobile might be cheaper, but check out the prices when you buy as these will change often. “This is early days and we’re going to monitor how it works,” says T-Mobile’s UK managing director, Brian McBride. “We are not here to rip people off – we’re here to create a new mass market.”
T-Mobile’s phones include the SDA II smartphone, the Nokia N70 and the Nokia 6630, as well as the MDA, a big creature that has a full folding keyboard. The phones all have bigger and better screens, and the connection is fast.
Mobile email makes businesses move a lot more quickly
The key thing to look for – and what gave Blackberry its edge – is “push” email, where emails pop up on your phone, or whatever device you are using, when It doesn’t just do email, it does instant messaging, too.
they arrive, instead of you having to log in to retrieve them.
With push, fast access and good software, the networks are doing the right things to get us using mobile email. For example with a demo MDA, you can send an email, attach a Word document and include a photo all within 10 minutes.
And they may also have the timing right. More people than ever have email at home and, with broadband, are checking it more often. As with the phone, it’s only a small step to taking it out the door.
And it won’t end there. By the time you read this, T-Mobile will also have the Sidekick, which could be one of the coolest mobile devices going. A screen slides to one side to reveal a keyboard.
Text, email and chat converge… to create what? But hold on, why do we need all these things? If we can already send texts from our phones, do we need to be able to email from them as well?
Yes, says Steve Maynard, marketing manager at Visto, the company that provides the mobile email software in the Vodafone Live! service: “Text and email are different beasts,” he says.
Mobile email makes businesses move quicker, he adds. For instance, many emails simply need a quick yes or no answer, and getting them while on the move can mean that answer gets sent a day earlier.
Similarly, if a personal email from a long-lost friend arrives when you are out, having mobile email can mean the difference between a reunion and a missed opportunity.
In future, email and text may blend, as the incoming messages arrive in one inbox, and we choose which service to use to send new messages. Maynard sends emails when he wants to know someone will get the message eventually. A more urgent message he might send by text.
Instant messaging, or chat, in programs like Microsoft Messenger, are the next to be included, and will bring another ability: telling your friends when you are available. This “presence” information will mean that you can tell if someone is busy and just send an email that they can later look at.
Even more intriguing, communication by text could even link back to voice. Knowing the difficulty of entering text on the move, Maynard is bringing a new idea to the market: replying to emails with voice. Service providers haven’t delivered this one yet, but when an email arrives, you will be able to speak your reply. It will be recorded as an audio file, and sent. “It could even make email safe while driving,” he said.
But all these innovations are optional, and the phone companies will be building in as much choice as possible. “Yes, mobile on the move will be part of our lifestyle,” says Maynard. “But it’s important to remember you can turn it off. If you go on holiday, you won’t have to take the work email with you. You as the user still have control over life.”
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