The Business Case For Mobile E-Mail

CHEAPER AND EASIER
Cost remains the most prohibitive factor for IT departments. In addition to the device itself, costs include a cellular service plan, mobile e-mail software license, and administrative support. "In many instances, enterprises aren't even paying for these sorts of employees' mobile phone service, so the marginal cost of deploying push e-mail to them remains high," says Carlo Longino, a mobile market analyst and blogger for MobHappy.com.

That's changing, driven by the arrival not only of high-end phones like Apple's iPhone with e-mail and Web browsing capabilities, but of low-cost devices with more limited capabilities that also support e-mail. Palm recently disclosed plans to release this month a quasi-smartphone, the Centro, that will cost less than $100.

Also, mig33 just released its "smartphone on a cell phone" software in the United States. The program gives any subscriber the ability to send and receive e-mail on a conventional mobile phone at no charge.

High-end vendors are releasing less expensive, consumer-oriented devices such as RIM's BlackBerry Pearl that's aimed at drawing more consumers to mobile e-mail subscriptions. Such developments will inevitably push the price of corporate e-mail for mobile devices lower –- a welcome move for an industry that has been "in search of a pricepoint" for enterprise services, as Cooper puts it.

"Mobile e-mail is becoming cheaper and easier all the time for enterprise IT departments to deploy," says analyst Longino. "A competitive and vibrant marketplace has emerged, with offerings from a number of vendors now available and widely accepted."

Costs are coming down, but there's still a distance to go in moving the dial from sub-single-digit penetration to the 25% levels that providers and research firms foresee.

IT departments must get creative in how they support mobile e-mail. For example, they might reimburse employees for using their own phones, broadening the range of devices and services they support.

"It's the employees and not necessarily IT departments that are getting creative" with mobile e-mail, says Cooper. That needs to change.

Illustration by Viktor Koen

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Mobile E-Mail For Business: How Five Platforms Compare