Motorola Licenses RIM Technology

[Mike Temporale]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&e=1&u=/nm/20040421/tc_nm/tech_researchinmotion_dc

"Research In Motion Ltd. (Toronto:RIM.TO - news) (Nasdaq:RIMM - news) said on Wednesday it struck a deal with Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT - news) to license its popular BlackBerry wireless e-mail service on some of Motorola's mobile phones. The agreement with the world's second-largest cell phone maker was widely expected and follows a series of similar deals between Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM and some of the world's leading mobile device makers."

I've seen this announcement all over the place today. It doesn't really surprise me, as everyone is jumping on the RIM bandwagon. And why shouldn't they, it works great. What I don't understand is this. Microsoft licensed RIM's technology a while back and they said it was going to be implemented into the Windows Mobile platform. So, why does Motorola care? Unless it's for some of their other handsets? I don't recall any announcement about HP licensing RIM's technology, yet the upcoming iPAQ 6300 is rumored to have it. Can anyone shed some light on this? My memory isn't what it once was, maybe I just think Microsoft licensed this and they never actually did. :?

[Mike Temporale]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&e=1&u=/nm/20040421/tc_nm/tech_researchinmotion_dc

"Research In Motion Ltd. (Toronto:RIM.TO - news) (Nasdaq:RIMM - news) said on Wednesday it struck a deal with Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT - news) to license its popular BlackBerry wireless e-mail service on some of Motorola's mobile phones. The agreement with the world's second-largest cell phone maker was widely expected and follows a series of similar deals between Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM and some of the world's leading mobile device makers."

I've seen this announcement all over the place today. It doesn't really surprise me, as everyone is jumping on the RIM bandwagon. And why shouldn't they, it works great. What I don't understand is this. Microsoft licensed RIM's technology a while back and they said it was going to be implemented into the Windows Mobile platform. So, why does Motorola care? Unless it's for some of their other handsets? I don't recall any announcement about HP licensing RIM's technology, yet the upcoming iPAQ 6300 is rumored to have it. Can anyone shed some light on this? My memory isn't what it once was, maybe I just think Microsoft licensed this and they never actually did. :?

[Kris Kumar]

Originally Posted by Mike Temporale

Microsoft licensed RIM's technology a while back and they said it was going to be implemented into the Windows Mobile platform. So, why does Motorola care? Unless it's for some of their other handsets? I don't recall any announcement about HP licensing RIM's technology, yet the upcoming iPAQ 6300 is rumored to have it. Can anyone shed some light on this? My memory isn't what it once was, maybe I just think Microsoft licensed this and they never actually did. :?

I dont remember any MS - RIM or HP - RIM agreements. Though there was a rumour that HP is acquiring RIM. RIM has I believe licensed the tech to Sony Ericsson, Nokia, HTC and Samsung.

HP has some real good partnerships with RIM, and is very likely to license Blackberry technology for its devices. On the other hand it does not need to. Because HTC which manufactures its Pocket PCs has licensed the tech from RIM. So HP devices can have Blackberry email push.

I think when HTC licensed the tech, the press releases emphasized that Microsoft Mobile devices will benefit. (That may have caused the confusion that Microsoft has licensed the tech.)

Moreover, I dont think the RIM tech is a software only solution. It is hardware-software combo, hence Microsoft cannot bake it into the core Mobile OS.

Why Motorola is after this tech?
- Since all its competitors have this tech.
- Smartphones and Pocket PCs are cool, but the email sync sucks. blackberry is the way to go.
- RIM is an established and trusted way, used by many companies
- Blackberry devices do one job good, ie Email, but for Enterprise apps and End users it is not that great (I know there are people who swear by it, I was one of them too)
- On the other hand Smartphones and Pocket PCs are natural devices for Enterprises and for End users. Much more flexible in terms of function and form factor.
- Combining Smartphone and Pocket PC with Blackberry tech is a killer combo.
- Since lots of companies already have the Blackberry infrastructure in place, for them to switch to more capable devices (Smartphones/Pocket PCs with Blackberry) will be easy. And thats what Motorola and other companies are betting on.

I feel that in the long run, RIM will make more money from licensing deals than selling its own handsets. RIM designed the email system and wrapped the PDA/OS functionality around it later. Microsoft designed the PDA/OS first and now all it needs is a good reliable email push system.

Microsoft thought that its Microsoft Mobile Information Server (kinda like Blackberry enterprise server) will be adopted by the companies. But it never was. Next they tried baking MIS functionality into Exchange. That hasnt helped too. Somehow corporations dont trust Microsoft with security (how can they :-)) of their emails. Thats where RIM beats them.
Kris

[Mike Temporale]

Originally Posted by kris_kumar

I dont remember any MS - RIM or HP - RIM agreements.

I remebered reading something about this awhile back. Found this post over of PPCT.

"Research In Motion (RIM) today announced plans to enable BlackBerry(TM) connectivity for mobile devices based on the Microsoft Windows Powered Pocket PC and Smartphone platforms. RIM will provide a solution to help mobile device manufacturers and mobile operators easily integrate BlackBerry email and data services into their Pocket PC and Smartphone products."

So there was no license agreement here. It's a post from over a year ago, so the fact that I remembered something about it is pretty good. Even if I got some of the facts wrong. right?? :wink:

[Kris Kumar]

Mike, I pulled out this press release from the RIM site. You are right, Microsoft is (or was - news release a year old) working with RIM directly to make it easy for RIM (and device manufacturers) to implement a solution. Interestingly this news release is about HTC - RIM alliance, but talks more about RIM - MS partnership :?:

http://www.rim.net/news/press/pr-17_03_2003-02.shtml

But this announcement is an year old and we havent heard anything from HTC or MS :-(

Here's direct quote from the release...
"As part of the BlackBerry Connect program, RIM is working with Microsoft to simplify the integration of wireless data access in a variety of devices. With the BlackBerry Connect licensing program and RIM's work with Microsoft, Pocket PC and Smartphone licensees including HTC will be able to easily integrate the BlackBerry experience in their devices."

Also this is what I was talking about why RIM and Windows Mobile is the ideal combo..
"The combination of Microsoft Windows Powered software with a sleek, stylish form factor has already attracted a broad base of customers," said Andy Haon, director of the Mobile Devices Division at Microsoft Corp. "With RIM's development work, these customers now have access to more choices for compelling wireless messaging solutions"

[possmann]

I betcha MS is going to put that sort of technology into their servers rather than on their clients (PPCPE and SP's) as there is more money to be made for them there.

Doesn't Exchange 2003 have the feature to push email to a WM device now? Wouldn't this sort of be RIM-ish technology?

I remember the Micorsoft application they had out several years ago that was designed to work with Outlook - you defined certain rules (which type of email got forwarded to your phone and when) and then it would push that email message to you using the application.

It was a free add-in for outlook and given the devices we have availble to us now (bigger screens, better networks etc...) I really wish they would have moved that forward so we could all use it.

*sigh*

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by kris_kumar

...Combining Smartphone and Pocket PC with Blackberry tech is a killer combo.

It's called the Motorola MPx. 8)

[possmann]

correct me if I'm wrong but I still think that the MPx will not get email pushed to it - they will still have to set something up on the exchange side (If I recall correctly) to push the informaiton to the device - that or a user will have to use activesync via GPRS to sync with the server/outlook...

[Kris Kumar]

Microsoft Exchange 2003 does have pretty good support for Mobile devices...

- ActiveSync Server
- Notifications to trigger sync (anytime a new mail arrives in the inbox, it sends a notification to the Mobile device to begin ActiveSync)
- Outlook Mobile Access (web based outlook with screens sized for mobile devices)

http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/te.../MobileAcc.doc
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/te...le/default.asp


Kris

[Kris Kumar]

Originally Posted by possmann

I remember the Micorsoft application they had out several years ago that was designed to work with Outlook - you defined certain rules (which type of email got forwarded to your phone and when) and then it would push that email message to you using the application.

It was a free add-in for outlook and given the devices we have availble to us now (bigger screens, better networks etc...) I really wish they would have moved that forward so we could all use it.

*sigh*

I always thought that Outlook Mobile Manager (that's what it was called) had a lot of potential. I used to depend on that app. Then Sprint PCS came out with a slightly better tool and I stopped using it. I wish MS had enhanced it and supported it.

http://www.microsoft.com/miserver/te...mm/default.asp

The best part about the tool was that end-user could install and use the app on their own, instead of depending on the IT department to deploy the Exchange server or MIS server.

*sigh*

[Kris Kumar]

Originally Posted by possmann

correct me if I'm wrong but I still think that the MPx will not get email pushed to it - they will still have to set something up on the exchange side (If I recall correctly) to push the informaiton to the device - that or a user will have to use activesync via GPRS to sync with the server/outlook...

You right Motorola has not made any announcement regarding push email tech for MPx.

But there are a few third party apps that they can leverage.

But "if" they can get Blackberry functionality into MPx :drool:

My initial thoughts were that Blackberry is hardware - software combo. But after reading the press releases it seems like it is software based solution. But it may still need some close tie up with the radio stack or network protocols, hence Motorola may not be able to get into the first version of MPx.