Rivals fight to bring mobi e-mail to China

May 31, 2006

They have cell phones by the hundreds of millions. Now the international telecom companies are hoping to bring a mobile e-mail service to the 400 million mobile users in China, 10 million of who are also potential 3G subscribers.

The road to mobile services in China has so far been paved with good intentions and linguistic difficulties. Whilst 3G seems ready to launch next month, getting cell-phone-based e-mail services into the region has been more of a headache. Back in April, China Unicom launched its RedBerry push e-mail service to the country. Both the software and hardware used were developed in China itself, and the subscription and messaging fees were incredibly low-priced.

Hot on its heels, Research in Motion announced it would be launching the ubiquitous BlackBerry service in China too, partnering with China Mobile. Even before the launch, however, industry observers raised doubts about whether BlackBerry would be able to compete with the far cheaper RedBerry service. In addition to cost factors, Chinese cell phone users like to write their messages using pen-based inscription of Chinese characters rather than typing onto the standard QWERTY keyboard that BlackBerrys have, according to the Beijing-based technology consultancy Wolf Group Asia Ltd.

Now the Visto Corporation thinks it can take on the competition to launch a service that will be "the first of its kind in China," according to a statement made by Chief Executive Officer Brian Bogosion. Visto describes itself as the leading global provider of secure push e-mail, although Forbes has described Bogosion as a mere "C-level exec." More prestigious are their partners Lenovo Chinaweal, a system integration subsidiary of the Lenovo Group Ltd., which are the world's third largest PC manufacturer and the leading IT equipment and services provider in China. The group was also formerly IBM's PC business and then bought the unit for $1.7 billion in April 2005. Both Visto and Lenovo have been heavily investing in the region to drive adoption when it comes to launch.

The first "enterprise grade mobile push e-mail solution to the Chinese market," as Visto and Lenovo describe it, has some key competitive differences to the previous offerings from the respective 'Berrys. For one, the service will be targeted specifically at business customers, according to Caihong He, president of Lenovo Chinaweal, although their size, e-mail infrastructure and preferred mobile devices will apparently be irrelevant -- all businesses will get served. While Research in Motion BlackBerry services are offered through telecom operators, the Visto system will be directly provided by the businesses to their employees.

The second trick that the partners have up their sleeve is that the service will be immediately available on 12 of their mobile devices currently on the market, including the popular Nokia 6600 and 7610s and the Sony Ericsson P910C.

The biggest sell for the service may however come from a market a little more closely allied to Visto's California headquarters than the massive native Pacific market that it's being offered to. Unlike previous offerings, the Visto Mobile service will bring the East and the West together by providing e-mail services in both Chinese and English. It's this final boon that, according to Forbes, will appeal to the Yank business expats over in China whose linguistic abilities are limited to the Roman alphabet. Language barriers between Chinese businesses and their Western counterparts have been a major source of trepidation, with numerous business schools now offering courses in Chinese language and culture. Research by the Gartner firm in December 2005 indicated that those barriers may be broken by 2008, with English remaining the preferred language. Until then, a multilingual mobile device may have to suffice.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International