The Demand for Mobile E-Mail Service Continues to Grow

Tricia Duryee of the Seattle Times reports on one of the most obvious techno-trends in recent times ...

Company executives popularized checking e-mail on the go through the BlackBerry.

Now, checking e-mail in the palm of your hand is something not only the suits want, it's increasingly in demand by ordinary consumers who want to stay in touch.

But the hang-ups are many.

Although the technology has been available for some time, it's complex and difficult to use. And other aspects of the service are also convoluted for consumers: They must consider new rate plans, which e-mail accounts they want to access, and which carrier and phone work best for them.

For now, the challenges probably will become more complicated as new applications are developed. And though carriers want to encourage consumers to use their new high-speed-data networks, it seems that they are content pushing more profitable products, such as ringtones and games rather than practical applications, such as e-mail.

It's clear consumers are interested in mobile e-mail. In multiple studies, it's the top item consumers say they want on their phone.

In a survey by the Yankee Group, it was the No. 1 feature for which subscribers 24 and older were willing to pay. In another survey, by Siemens, 69 percent said they were interested in their phone managing both office and private e-mails, calendars and contact lists.

"The wireless e-mail in the corporate market is something where we've had explosive growth over the last couple of years," said Mike Woodward, executive director, mobile professional solutions, for Cingular Wireless in Redmond.

"As that has matured, a much bigger opportunity has emerged with the ... consumer, who wants work but also personal e-mail."

Take Marc Steingrebe, 34, who works at a financial brokerage in Bellevue.

E-mail on his mobile phone was a necessity for Steingrebe since his employer blocks personal e-mail at work. About a year ago, after some research, he purchased a phone that allowed him to read his Hotmail and his Internet service provider accounts.

"My wife and I communicate a lot this way," he said. "We car pool, so a lot of times, if she's running late, she'll send e-mail, and I'll be able to see it on my phone," he said.

Although interest is high, adoption is low.

Seattle-based M:Metrics found only 7.3 percent of U.S. subscribers had used their phone to check personal e-mail in the three months ended in May.

"The consumer probably knows there's mobile e-mail, but I think people associate mobile e-mail with the enterprise, the businessmen with their BlackBerries," said David Yeh, a Yankee Group wireless and media-research associate.

Readily available

The technology exists even on low-end phones that are free. Many can connect to the Internet and pull down data that is readily available from a Web site, like Yahoo!, America Online, Google or MSN.

But the experience is often clunky -- it can require so many clicks a consumer isn't likely to use it.

Consumers should ask themselves a number of questions before deciding on what phone and service they want, said Cristy Swink, Cingular's executive director of messaging.

What kind of e-mail do you want to access -- for work, or personal, or both? How often do you think you will want to access it? And how much are you willing to spend?

First, consumers must sign up for a data account. With only a voice plan, they could end up spending a lot of money in additional fees for accessing the Internet.

The four major U.S. carriers commonly offer unlimited data for as little as $20 a month on top of a voice plan.

Basic questions

Once the basic questions are answered, the consumer still has to figure out how to use the phone. While executives have the help of an IT staff, consumers are left on their own.

"It's not completely intuitive," Steingrebe said. "I'm so used to doing it on computers, I found it not too hard to do on my own, but if I wasn't very tech-savvy, ... I might have a little trouble."

In reality, Steingrebe is having more than a little trouble. Several times a day the application kicks him out, and he has to log in again.

In addition, for the past two weeks, it hasn't worked at all. He's tried resetting his phone and other quick fixes, but they haven't fixed it. It's something he'd rather not call customer support about.

In an attempt to make things easier, the carriers use applications from a third-party to provide e-mail. Several carriers in the U.S., including Cingular, Sprint, Boost and Virgin Mobile, rely on an application by OZ Communications, a Montreal-based company.

The free application, once installed, is easy to use. For instance, a text message will be sent when you get a new e-mail. Also, it displays the name of the person sending the e-mail and the subject line. If it is spam, or unfamiliar, the user doesn't have to download the entire item and pay for the extra data.

"Making it on the phone exactly how it looks on the PC" means there's no confusion, said Beverly Wilks, marketing manager at OZ.

Still, there are shortcomings. The application does not allow attachments to be sent, and it only includes access to Yahoo!, AOL and MSN's Hotmail. OZ does not include Google-owned Gmail. Access to Internet service providers, such as Comcast or Earthlink, are an additional hurdle.

This is where the real conflicts begin, said Yeh, of the Yankee Group. The carriers are being protective of their networks, and the portals can't agree to work together.

Attachments aren't allowed, he said, because "the carriers don't want to be seen as a pipe, and they won't say it, but they are interested in having a revenue share for everything that goes through their network. They want to control all the experiences."

Gmail is not included because all the Web portals can't agree to collaborate.

In fact, most of them are working on their own wireless initiatives. That could mean that if a consumer had accounts to more than one Web portal, multiple applications could be needed.

It gets more confusing.

OZ provides the application for the consumer market, but if someone buys a high-end phone such as a Palm Treo or a Windows Mobile device, the e-mail options differ.

Different options

Cingular's network, for instance, provides something called Xpress Mail, developed by Seven of Redwood City, Calif. Other applications are provided by Visto, and Steingrebe, who has a Windows Mobile device, has opted to use Pocket MSN, a Microsoft application.

The situation will probably get worse before it gets better. To illustrate the market, Yankee Group's Yeh has made a 4-by-4 grid showing all the offerings, markets, characteristics and pricing structures of the products.

The bottom line is that mobile e-mail is available to whoever wants it, but not without some persistence.

"We know that they [consumers] want these things, and they are trying to figure out how to do these things, but in a reasonable fashion, in which they don't want to pay like crazy," Yeh said.