New technology to offer mass market BlackBerry service

The new service dubbed ‘Mwananchi’s BlackBerry’ will allow users to read emails without using Internet.

December 19, 2008: A new partnership between a Kenyan value-added mobile services provider and an Indian programming firm seeks to introduce what its creators call the ‘Mwananchi’s BlackBerry’ to the market.

Owners of low-end handsets will now be able to access email services on their phones without using internet connectivity on the new service, dubbed Mobee.

“Mobee is an email2SMS service based on the push-mail concept similar to that used on BlackBerries.  It enables one to send and receive emails on a mobile phone via SMS without any internet connection,” said Symon Ndirangu, CEO of Information Convergence Technologies (ICT Kenya).

Push mail is a concept that has come to prominence in recent years as users increasingly seek out products that will enhance their productivity while on the move.

It is defined as the automatic forwarding of mail from servers to a mobile device.

Push mail works by keeping an active connection open between the mobile device and the server that will  notify the mobile device immediately a new email has arrived, allowing users to read mail as it arrives in real time on their phone.

Research In Motion, the manufacturer of BlackBerry, the specialised devices that allow consumers to access their email using a hand-held device has enjoyed commercial success as the concept becomes increasingly popular with office workers around the world.

Both Safaricom and Zain launched their version of the service, allowing Kenyans to access push email from around Sh2,000 a month.

Mr Ndirangu’s company hopes to enable low-end handsets – those that do not have the internet capability necessary for push email services – to access a similar product.

“There are no installations necessary and we are offering the service for free until the end of next month so users can experience it,” he said.

Mr Ndirangu met with BitlaSoft, a company that has rolled out Mobee services in Bangalore in August this year during an industry conference.  His company then signed working agreement that will see his company roll out the product in this market.

The Indian company will provide ongoing technical expertise while ICT Kenya is responsible for marketing and getting mobile providers on board to support the project.

The mutual benefit partnership is based on revenue share.

In the next few weeks, the joint venture hopes to roll out a Business to Customer oriented product that will allow users to transact with firms using their mobile phones.

Kenyan users will need to register on the mobee.co.ke website to use the service, and can forward mail from Outlook, G-mail, Yahoo and other mail servers to their phones.

There are currently 20 million Blackberry subscribers around the world.

Limited uptake

Since Zain and Safaricom launched their BlackBerry services, uptake has mostly been limited to corporate customers whose staff are able to afford monthly access costs starting from Sh2,000 in addition to a one-off purchase of a specialised device which can receive the service.

No figures are available on the uptake of the service locally.

Osterman Research, an industry trend watchdog, estimates the uptake of push email services by corporate workers will increase to include half the workforce by 2010.

“If an organisation’s mobile device or service was down, more than 80 per cent of respondents told us that this downtime would have an impact on their senior managers ability to make critical, time-sensitive decisions — one in ten told us it would have a very serious impact,” said the research firm in its report ‘Mobile Messaging Trends’ 2008.