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Nokia launched its Enterprise Solutions business group one year ago to help get its products and service into the hands of corporations and mobile professionals. In October, the group started shipping the 9500 Communicator (see top image), the 'workhorse' of its device portfolio. A month earlier, it introduced the 9500's sister smartphone, the 9300, a streamlined device for professional consumers and enterprises alike.

Yesterday, SmartPhoneToday reported that Nokia would offer a couple of different e-mail and data access solutions for these flagship smartphones. The two implementations mentioned in the article included Research In Motion's BlackBerry and Smartner's Duality Always-On Mail personal and corporate e-mail applications (see Nokia Taps Push-Mail for New Communicators).

Now comes word that the mobile phone giant has even more enterprise solutions, from Visto, Good Technology, and Oracle up its sleeve for these innovative new handsets. According to Nokia, by focusing on the integration of a variety of compatible mobile e-mail solutions, it will offer enterprises the freedom to choose one or combine e-mail solutions, delivery options, and deployment methods to create a mobile e-mail environment for their unique needs.

Nokia Enterprise Solutions Senior VP & General Manager Mary McDowell said, "Nokia is committed to answering the broader needs of enterprises across the world by giving them access to the best mobile e-mail solutions on the market today. Like all early technology markets, mobile e-mail is marked by a variety of solutions and approaches currently available. With so much choice in terms of available solutions and approaches, enterprises and operators are evaluating how best to implement mobile application platforms. It is important to understand that it is not a 'one size fits all' market."

Visto
Visto Mobile is a wireless e-mail platform that provides 2-way delivery of e-mail, contacts and calendar updates on any 2.5G or 3G device. It offers push e-mail/PIM capability that runs on POP3, Microsoft Outlook/Exchange, and IBM Lotus Notes/Domino servers, and scales from mobile professionals to enterprises.

Carriers usually offer Visto services under their own brand names. Current mobile operators that sell Visto-based synchronization and messaging include AT&T Wireless, Bell Mobility, KPN, Manitoba Telecom Services, Nextel Communications, Rogers Wireless, SaskTel Mobility, SmarTone and TELUS Mobility.

Good Technology
Good Technology's GoodLink is a wireless messaging and data access software and service that provides mobile users with cradle-free, AES-encrypted, two-way, real-time access to Microsoft Exchange-based email, contacts, calendar, notes and tasks. GoodLink's Outlook-like user interface and desktop software-free design aims to lower the cost of mobile access to e-mail and other applications, including CRM, ERP and SCM.

The company said it currently partners with all of the major U.S. operators as well as Orange and O2 in Europe, while over three thousand enterprises use GoodLink as their wireless messaging standard.

Oracle
Nokia and Oracle are extending their long-standing partnership to implement push e-mail capability for Oracle Collaboration Suite on the new 9300 and 9500 Communicators. The e-mail solution, designed by Oracle and Consilient, will be based on the emerging Push-IMAP standard.

Consilient develops client-server software for push e-mail and calendar on mobile devices and phones. Consilient's Mobility Server is based on PIMAP and SyncML open standards, providing real-time connectivity between e-mail systems and mobile devices.

The combined Oracle and Consilient solution for Nokia is expected to be available during first quarter 2005.

Nokia 9500 & 9300 Communicators
The two new communicators, due later this year, are the descendents of one of the first smartphones lines, 9200, launched by Nokia back in the late nineties. Both handsets feature Wi-Fi in addition to cellular communications and a QWERTY keyboard. They look like mini-laptops.


9300 Communicator

As a little sister of sorts to the 9500 communicator, the 9300 will measure 5.2 x 2.0 x 0.83 inches and weigh only 5.9 ounces, about average for a smartphone, but extremely light for a Nokia Communicator. By contrast, the 9500 weighs in at a hefty 7.83 ounces and sports dimensions of 5.8 x 2.24 x 0.9 inches.

For more on the 9300, see Nokia’s Smaller, Lighter Communicator.

For more on the 9500, see Nokia Adds Wi-Fi to Communicator Series.