Nokia took aim at smartphone rival RIM on Tuesday with plans to expand the number of devices that will automatically be capable of accessing Microsoft corporate e-mail.
On the eve of the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment tradeshow in San Francisco, Nokia announced it will embed Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync on all Nokia phones that use the S60 Symbian operating system. As a result, 43 different models of Nokia phones will have easy access to Microsoft corporate e-mail. Nokia will also add the Microsoft Exchange support to all new Nseries and Eseries phones released in future.
Until this announcement, Nokia offered Microsoft e-mail support as a download for only a handful of devices. However, the feature was not well publicized, and it was relatively difficult to download.
Now Microsoft's ActiveSync software will be automatically available for 80 million of Nokia's already shipped devices, and it will be available as a standard feature on all new Nokia Nseries and Eseries phones. Having the software embedded on the phone or as an automatic software update makes setting up corporate e-mail access on a Nokia phone so easy that most people can do it themselves without the help of their IT department, said Bill Plummer, vice president of sales and go-to-market for Nokia Americas.
The enhancement is significant, especially in the United States, where Nokia has not made significant progress in the smartphone market. RIM has dominated the smartphone category in the United States with its BlackBerry devices.
The integrated Microsoft e-mail support will now make Nokia a more appealing choice for corporate users. However, winning over corporate customers may still be difficult. Nokia rivals, such as Palm and Motorola, already have ActiveSync available on their smartphones, and BlackBerry continues to have the upper hand over these companies. Apple has also introduced Microsoft ActiveSync for its iPhone users.
Most of Nokia's phones that will offer the embedded e-mail software are not sold through carriers in the United States, which means they are not subsidized. With price tags in the range of US$450 to US$950, Nokia smartphones could be out of reach of some U.S. consumers, especially when all four of the major U.S. carriers offer subsidized BlackBerry devices for around US$100.
This article was first published as a blog on CNET News.com.
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