Nokia's E-Mail & Messaging Services: An Update

Nokia held a press conference on Tuesday in Bangalore to give an update on their e-mail and messaging services.

A press release issued by the company quotes Viral Oza, Head – Activation, Media & Online Marketing, “Nokia believes email has become a standard part of the mobile experience, not a unique class of solution for a select part of the market. We are committed to serving the mobile email needs of the entire market with a complete portfolio of solutions across the full range of our devices and this move underlines that commitment.”

The release further gives an update on the kind of messaging and e-mail services that Nokia offers to both enterprise-class users and individual users.

Nokia Messaging for consumers is a push email UI that aggregates all the consumer email accounts through one client. It can support and mobilize up to 10 email accounts such as Gmail, Yahoo, Rediffmail, Sify and Indiatimes amongst others.  Nokia’s email solution can be configured in 3 steps with the user having to click on the email icon and then enter his email address and password. It allows toggling from one email account to another, without closing the existing email account, and without having to go through the web browser. The service is supported on more than 35 device models, and it has over 2 million active users in more than 100 countries today.

Nokia has also worked with Microsoft and IBM in delivering business email and business instant messaging to users. Business email solutions such as Mail for Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes Traveller deliver a mobile office experience with email, calendar, contacts and tasks. These solutions utilize existing company email infrastructure. Companies utilizing standard internet email solutions (POP3/IMAP4) can take advantage either of Nokia Messaging, a service by Nokia which provides a basic push email for standard internet email (POP3/IMAP4) accounts or the direct internet email access client included in Nokia devices.

Mail on Ovi is a free, out-of-the box, email for first-time and more advanced users.  According to a study mentioned in the release, 75% of the world’s population has not used email services yet. Nokia aims to offer the first experience of email to these people on a mobile device.  An Ovi Mail account can be created directly on the mobile phone. For first time email users, Ovi Mail provides an internet identity, as well as cross access to other Ovi services.  Ovi Mail is available across 100 devices in 180 countries in 20 languages currently.  Since its launch in December 2008, more than 6 million Ovi Mail accounts have been created and India is among the top 10 countries where Ovi Mail subscribers come from.

Today, over 96 Nokia devices (Symbian) enable mobile email, of which 50+ devices support Microsoft Exchange Active sync corporate email solution. The Nokia S60 3^rd Edition devices enable email accounts from over a thousand ISPs around the world. Nokia devices also support Email accounts from the 3 largest web-based email providers including Gmail and Yahoo mail.