Microsoft is planning to give BlackBerry a run for its money in India by supporting "push" e-mail in mobile devices like pocket-PCs and smartphones.
Busy executives having BlackBerry-enabled handsets do not have to check their mobiles for e-mail every now and then since it's automatically downloaded.
Microsoft, too, with its Windows Mobile 5.0 platform, will ensure that e-mail is automatically downloaded (termed "push" e-mail) on mobile devices, just as one get e-mail in one's Outlook inbox.
Microsoft's major Windows Mobile device-maker partners in India are iMate and HP, in addition to O2 and Eten. Microsoft officials, however, "would not comment at this stage" on the names of the operators they would partner with for this service.
They added, though, that they shortly planned to introduce the service in around 15 handset models, starting from around Rs 15,000 (The BlackBerry 7100g, too, is priced at Rs 15,000).
However, Research in Motion (RIM, the developer of the BlackBerry wireless platform) officials did not appear perturbed over the likely competition from Microsoft.
Norm Lo, vice-president, Asia Pacific, RIM, said: "RIM welcomes competition. The more users are informed about the benefits of mobile e-mail, the more popular it gets - which is good for us as the market leader.
"BlackBerry is really beyond e-mail - our applications and solutions platform is driving more value and benefits for enterprise customers. RIM will continue to enable applications beyond e-mail for corporate, SMB, and individual customers in India."
