Today's wireless customers, especially corporations and mobile professionals, expect mobile e-mail and personal data access with their voice plans. The success of Research In Motion (RIM) and its BlackBerry platform prove that.

But the number of players in this space is growing. Visto, for example, licenses its mobile e-mail platform to wireless carriers, who in turn resell it under their own brand name. Another company is former RIM nemesis Good Technology (see RIM, Good Declare Peace).

In Good's case, it works with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to add value to their platforms, smartphones, and handhelds. It also sells its solution directly to corporations. According to the company, over 3,000 enterprises have implemented its Microsoft Exchange-based system, which it updated this week.

GoodLink 3.7 delivers enterprise users a 3X boost in over-the-air synch speed and up to a 25 percent increase in battery life over the previous edition. It also features what Good calls true multitasking and a significant number of productivity enhancing Outlook features, such as a calendar week view for accessing a snap-shot view of a weekly calendar; a preview pane for e-mail; flag for follow up; reply/forward status indicators; an out of office assistant; and expanded auto text.

All of these features are synchronized wirelessly between the handheld and the Microsoft Exchange server, keeping information up to date both on the desktop and the device, with no need for cradles or desktop software. The company also enhanced the GoodLink Management Console and the optional GoodLink Desktop Installer to simplify handheld setup for IT.

Further, with version 3.7, GoodLink now supports three more smartphones, including Hewlett-Packard's iPAQ h6315, Samsung's i700, and palmOne's Treo 600 and the new Treo 650. GoodLink can handle both cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity for the iPAQ h6315.

Good's Director of Product Management Rick Osterloh told SmartPhoneToday that "as companies like palmOne, HP and Samsung continue to bring to market increasingly sophisticated handheld devices, Good is enabling users to take full advantage of the features these tools have to offer. Today, we're reinforcing our commitment to helping companies leverage industry-standard-based wireless solutions through adding support for Wi-Fi, along with new Microsoft Outlook features."