Nokia E-Mail Software To Compete With BlackBerry

Storming into territory previously dominated by companies like Research In Motion and Good Technology, Nokia Tuesday unveiled software for delivering corporate e-mail to mobile devices.

The company said that its Nokia Business Center software consists of two components: server-side software and a choice of two different device clients. The client software is based on Java and will work with Nokia's 9300 and 9500 Communicator smartphones as a host of other Nokia smartphones. Initially, it will support Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 but the company said it will soon support Lotus Notes and Domino.

While the company didn't mention its competitors by name, a Nokia executive said in a statement indicated it wanted to be a major player in the mobile e-mail market.

"In the current landscape, many industry players are going after a slice of the potential mobile e-mail market," Mary McDowell, vice president of Nokia's Enterprise Solutions business group, said in a statement. "Nokia is going after the full 650 million corporate e-mail inboxes. We want to knock down the barriers to mobilizing the entire corporate e-mail market."

Users of devices with the standard client will be able to compose, read and delete e-mail and work online, the company said The so-called professional client offers a more graphical interface that is similar to desktop e-mail programs, according to Nokia. The professional client also can handled meeting requests and has full support for viewing attachments.The company said its product end-to-end encryption and over-the-air synchronization. The software will be available in the fourth quarter of this year, according to the company.