Networks set to deliver mobile e-mail
 |  New technology makes e-mail access via 3G handsets possible. |
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Anyone who has ever had to deal with an overflowing inbox after a few days away from the office will appreciate the benefits of mobile e-mail.
Until now though that luxury has been largely restricted to a few senior executives armed with BlackBerry handsets.
But the imminent arrival of push email services offered by mobile operators looks set to blow the market wide open and bring wireless e-mail to the masses.
According to UBS analyst Pip Coburn mobile e-mail could to be the "killer application" that will drive 3G phone sales to the extent that other applications and services offered by mobile operators will be rendered irrelevant.
Earlier this year, American technology company Visto linked up with Vodafone, the world's largest mobile operator, to provide push e-mail across its networks in the most explicit challenge yet mounted to BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion's (RIM) market dominance.
While RIM offers corporate clients a complete package of hardware, software and technical support, Visto's software makes e-mail available through any regular 3G handset by pushing it, via a corporate server or Internet Service Provider, onto a cellular network.
According to Visto CEO Brian Bogosian, it is an "agnostic solution" that recognizes the huge potential for mobile e-mail beyond the BlackBerry's niche market of high-end corporate users.
"You've got a company with 25,000 employees and you might find the BlackBerry in the hands of 100 people. That's not our vision for this market," Bogosian told CNN.
"Our vision is that everybody will have mobile access to their email and other critical data. It will be reliable, easy to use and it will be on the device of your choice."
Visto are not the only player in a market that some estimate could be worth $12.5 billion by 2009, with SEVEN and Intelisync among the other companies to have developed their own versions of the technology.
RIM, which this year saw its sales increase from $595 million to $1.35 billion, also hopes to continue expanding. In April, the Independent newspaper reported that RIM was set to licence BlackBerry technology to other telecoms groups including British Telecom, Nokia and Motorola.
But Nick McQuire of technology analysts Yankee Group, which predicts that the market for mobile e-mail services will have reached 45 million potential customers by 2008, told CNN that Visto's deal with Vodafone had given them an early advantage over their rivals.
"It is still very much the wild wild west," McQuire told CNN. "The market to supply mobile data is at a critical stage. We've reached the tipping point for mobile e-mail. The next 18 months will be a critical period."
Bogosian believes that within three years mobile e-mail will have become as commonplace as mobile phones themselves, allowing workers to turn off their out-of-office replies permanently.
"It will be like asking yourself, 'What did we used to do before voicemail?' and it's kind of hard to imagine. This will be precisely the same thing."
