It’s no BlackBerry killer, but new Canuck mobile e-mail service could attract attention
A new clientless e-mail platform that uses text messaging to push messages to e-mail accounts is set to make waves in the low-end cellular consumer market in developing countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America later this year. With plans to break into North America in the fi rst quarter of 2010, iseemedia Inc., a Concord, Ont.-based wireless solutions company, is eyeing the prospect of launching a new generation of users who’ll use texts to send e-mails.

“There are a lot of companies that cannot afford to expand their push e-mail program because it’s very expensive on BlackBerry,” said Anthony DeCristofaro, president and CEO of iseemedia. “I really believe in the long run, as we penetrate massive amounts of (users) using push e-mail, many of those customers can upgrade to BlackBerry who want a more signifi cant service.”

According to DeCristofaro, the service, called iseemail, isn’t looking to usurp market share from smartphone giants like Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) and iPhone maker Apple Inc., but instead could offer an alternative. Subscribers to the service will be able to send and receive e-mails, PDFs and photos. “We can deliver a 10 minute PowerPoint to a Motorola Razr if you wanted,” DeCristofaro said.

To send e-mails on the iseemail platform, users input their e-mail addresses and passwords into a back-end system via their cell phones and “the service will check credentials, will check billing information and will activate you and immediately you’re up and running,” said Elie Makhoul, vice-president, engineering and chief technology offi cer of iseemedia. Its multi-modal approach allows users to access e-mails through interfaces like SMS, WAP/XHTML and embedded Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync client.

For now, the company is concentrating its efforts in developing countries for reasons of volume. In those countries, iseemedia is hoping to capture the bulk of cell phone users who are on pay-as-you go plans, which may not allow for data plans needed to send e-mail for mobile devices. “If you look at any of these countries, they have on average, 90 per cent pre-paid subscribers,” Makhoul said.

“Our marketplace, we believe, is probably 10 times bigger than the BlackBerry-addressed market today,” DeCristofaro added. “So now all of a sudden, market penetration becomes a much higher possibility.”

When the iseemail service goes live – DeCristafaro speculates that’ll happen by the end of this year – it will cost users anywhere from $1 to $2 a month depending on the service area. Stateside, iseemedia is in talks with carriers to bring the service to North America “maybe in Q1 of 2010, end of Q1, beginning of Q2,” DeCristofaro said, adding that price points for iseemail will also be in the $1 to $2 range.

In Canada and the U.S., the segment most likely to take off with the introduction of iseemail may also be the pre-paid card consumer, said Roberta Fox, a senior partner with Fox Group Consulting, a fi rm of consultants and analysts who specialize in IT, telecom and call centres in Mount Albert, Ont. “So the low-end consumer base of people that don’t have computers -- basically the same demographic as in India.”

And with a price point of $1 to $2, what’s not to like? “Oh defi nitely,” Fox said of the service’s potential to popularize e-mail texting in Canada. “It takes a lot of months at a buck a month to pay for a computer. Even if you buy a netbook at $300, that’s 300 months.”

Fox speculated that it would make sense for iseemail to crop up in service bundles from large wireless carriers or be offered as an incentive by new entrants into the wireless market in the coming months. One thing is certain for Fox – services like iseemail won’t be displacing BlackBerries and smartphones from their data thrones anytime soon for its lack of technological sophistication. However, there are still some dire situations that even BlackBerry users can fi nd e-mail texting useful.

“In Mount Albert, there are parts where you’re never going to be able to get high-speed, but I might just want to send an e-mail,” Fox said. “But I’ve got my cell phone and my cell phone works OK... So it may have North American relevance.”