The ability to send and receive mobile e-mail and other types of personal information management (PIM) data help to define a mobile handset as a smartphone. While Research In Motion and its BlackBerry platform is the best-known exemplifier of wireless e-mail, there are plenty of other players in the space.

Two, Sproqit Technologies and newcomer 4SmartPhone, aim their solutions at smaller companies and individuals. Another, Visto, licenses its mobile e-mail platform to wireless carriers, who turn around and sell it to individuals, small businesses and enterprise customers under their own brand name.

4SmartPhone
4SmartPhone today unveiled a hosted service that provides access to e-mail and other data from Microsoft' Exchange 2003 platform for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). According to the company, it delivers seamless access to corporate information on Microsoft Windows mobile devices as well as most data-enabled phones, smartphones and wireless PDAs.

With 4SmartPhone, users can access constantly updated or real-time information with the most familiar functions of Microsoft Outlook on a wireless device, including inbox, contacts, calendar, tasks, notes, and shared/public folders. In addition, the solution enables real-time access to information through synchronization over-the-air, allowing users to send, receive and review attachments in the most common formats such as Excel, Word and PDF files.

The company's primary target is companies that don't have a enterprise e-mail system and rely on such things as Yahoo!, AOL or POP3 accounts but want something more.

"4SmartPhone is committed to delivering the highest-quality mobility solutions to small and medium size businesses," said Patrick Gilbert, President & CEO of 4SmartPhone. "Until now, SMB professionals have either had to make a significant investment in complex systems like those implemented within large enterprises, or have had to do without the same kinds of productivity advantages that large companies are able to afford. Our goal is to deliver an easy, non-disruptive, world-class mobile office solution that doesn't require a huge investment of budget or time, nor does it require the technology expertise of an IT department."

4SmartPhone will setup the system—$150 per year per device with bulk discounts available—for those who sign-up.

Sproqit
Sproqit Personal Edition is a wireless solution for accessing all the features of Outlook or any other desktop application from a Palm or Pocket PC PDA or smartphone. It does this through a direct and real-time connection between PC and handheld over any type of network (i.e. cellular, Wi-Fi, wired).

The solution leverages a thin-client running on a handheld to enable complete network browsing, sending and receiving attachments, contacts, calendar, tasks, and notes. The company said you can install Sproqit software on desktop computers and mobile devices and get all the functionality and flexibility you need, both online and offline, regardless of the size of the deployment.

Sproqit Personal Edition should be available by mid October in the United States for $8.85 month for a single license. It will ship in November in the United Kingdom.

Visto
As we reported in August, Visto is an up-and-coming competitor to RIM with over 200,000 customers (see Up-And-Comer Visto Challenges RIM with Mobile E-Mail). Visto has a different business model, however. Its main focus is on licensing its mobile e-mail platform to mobile operators.

Visto has unveiled version 5.0 of Visto Mobile, the next generation of its wireless e-mail platform. Visto Mobile now provides instantaneous and automatic 2-way delivery of e-mail, contacts and calendar updates on any 2.5G or 3G device, cell phone or smartphone. Mobile devices supported by the solution include Windows Mobile 2003 for SmartPhone and Pocket PC Phone Edition, Palm OS, Symbian OS, and J2ME MIDP 2.0 smartphones and mobile handsets.

According to IDC's Mobile Software Service Program Manager Stephen Drake "solutions such as Visto Mobile 5.0 that deliver a true push-based, real-time architecture as well as broad device and e-mail platform support provide a compelling solution for both mobile operators and enterprises."

Ten wireless carriers worldwide offer their customers access to wireless e-mail and PIM data through the Visto Mobile platform, including AT&T Wireless and Nextel Communications in the United States.