8th Feb 2008 07:00
Synchronica PLC08 February 2008 Synchronica targets emerging markets with mass market, zero footprint mobile email solution that works on any phone First mobile operator launched and another 15 currently trialling solution inemerging markets Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, 8 February 2008 Royal Tunbridge Wells - Synchronica (AIM: SYNC), the international provider ofmobile email and synchronization solutions, announces that the latest version ofits ground-breaking mobile email software, Mobile Gateway 3.5, now works withmore than three billion phones in use around the world today. For emergingmarkets, such as the Indian sub-continent and the Middle East and Africa (MEA),mobile operators can now offer mobile email to all of their prosumer/consumersubscribers, regardless of which handset they use. Synchronica is making significant in-roads into emerging markets, with the firstmobile operator having launched Mobile Gateway and another 15 operatorscurrently trialling the software. Carsten Brinkschulte, Synchronica's CEO, comments: "Mobile operators in emergingmarkets have been telling us that they see a strong market for mass-marketmobile email and look at mobile email as a way to get around the inherentproblems caused by low fixed line and PC penetration. The challenge has beenfinding a mobile email solution that works with all phones in use today and doesnot need additional client software to be installed on the device. With MobileGateway 3.5, we have added the last piece of the jigsaw, by enabling any mobilephone user, regardless of which handset they use, to access their email easilyfrom their phone. Brinkschulte continues: "All forecasts point to emerging markets as thebreakthrough area for mass-market mobile email. India, for example, saw a 97%year-on-year growth in new mobile subscribers during 2006 to 149.5 million(1),and forecasts point to a total of 300 million mobile users by the end of 2008.The number of mobile phone subscribers in developing countries has almosttripled in the last five years and they now account for 58 per cent ofsubscribers worldwide(2). All of this bodes well for mobile email, when youconsider that the number of email users in India outstrips the number of PCs inthe country. Recent trips to emerging markets convinced me that mobile operatorsin these regions now have the opportunity to make the mobile phone the primarydevice for accessing the Internet and our 'mobile email for all' solution canbecome the most popular data service generating recurring revenues andpreventing churn." New features in Mobile Gateway 3.5 include: • Support for all phones: Even very basic phones can receive email - via an SMS notification showing header and body text in a text message; • Mobile signup: Users can register from their handset via WAP, removing the need to sign up via a PC in countries where PC penetration is low; • New business backends: Support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and Sun Communications Suite 5.0; • Easy billing integration: New billing API for integration with billing systems (post- and pre-paid). About Mobile Gateway Synchronica's Mobile Gateway provides carrier-grade push email andsynchronization services for virtually all mass market feature phones andsmartphones being used by subscribers today. Based on the dominant open industrystandards Push IMAP (LEMONADE) for mobile email and SyncML (OMA DS) for contactand calendar synchronization, it works with the built-in Email andsynchronization clients found in more than 1.5 billion phones. The new Email toSMS functionality expands its reach to virtually every phone in use today.Serving consumers and prosumers, Mobile Gateway includes back-end support forPOP3 and IMAP mailboxes, connecting to popular services such as AOL or GoogleMail. For business users, it provides a unique zero footprint architecture whereusers simply register their devices and instantly start to receive corporateemail on their phone without requiring additional connectors behind thefirewall. Business mailboxes supported include Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Dominoand Sun Communications Suite. About Synchronica Synchronica plc develops and markets industry standard mobile email andsynchronization solutions for the vast majority of devices in the market today.Mobile operators, device manufacturers and service providers in emerging anddeveloped markets use Synchronica products to offer mobile email, PIMsynchronization and backup & restore services to their consumer and corporatecustomer base. Products include the push email and synchronization solutionMobile Gateway and the mass-market device backup solution Mobile Backup.Headquartered in the UK with a development centre in Germany and a presence inHong Kong, Dubai and U.S. Synchronica plc is a public company traded on the AIMlist of the London Stock Exchange (SYNC.LN). More information is available atwww.synchronica.com. For more information, please contact: Nicole MeissnerChief Marketing OfficerTel.: +44 1892 552 780Mobile U.K.: +44 7977 256 412Mobile D: +49 173 6069 160Fax: +44 1892 552 [email protected] -------------------------- (1) Data from Light Reading, March 2007 (statistics show growth between Dec '05and Dec '06). Other countries that feature in Light Reading's Top Ten EmergingMobile Markets report include: Pakistan (up 147% to 48.3 million) Bangladesh (up135% to 21.8m) and Nigeria (up 38% to 30m). (2) Data from study of world trade and development conference of the UnitedNations (UNCTAD)February 2008. 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