Motorola make Good better to beat Blackberry

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 26 June 2007 07:38

Business IT - Technology

Motorola has released a significant upgrade to its Good mobile messaging technology, making it an even stronger challenger to Research in Motion's Blackberry.

Motorola acquired Good in September 2006  when it was already identified as the main challenger to Blackberry. Motorola claims that the latest release, Good Mobile Messaging 5 "helps make mobile email more personalised and productive, all while enhancing IT control."

The Good service operates in very similar fashion to Research In Motion's BlackBerry: there is a server in the customer's data centre that interfaces to corporate email and contact management systems. This routes messages over the Internet to servers in Good's facility in the US from they are routed onto the mobile network of the service provider for delivery to the end user device. A management interface provides for remote monitoring and control of the handset by the customers' IT department. However unlike RIM's primary offering, it does not required a dedicated custom-built handset.  A senior Good executive last year acknowledged to iTWire the strength of the RIM product, saying that, on the proprietary Blackberry devices it was comparable to the Good offering, but claiming that software versions available for other platforms were significantly inferior.

According to Motorola, "Good 5 incorporates multiple new features that vastly improve the mobile experience both for business users and IT professionals by: helping enable mobile users to get things done more easily; providing greater personalisation; and strengthening security and manageability."

The new release will incorporate all of the handheld security capabilities previously available separately though the company's Good Mobile Defense product.

Good 5 introduces new email and personal information manager capabilities that are claimed to "help mobile users to easily find what they need when they need it and get work done." A complete list of new features is available here.

Good 5 is expected to be available in September through cellular operators worldwide, certified value-added resellers, and directly through Motorola Good Technology Group. The software and service will support a broad choice of the industry's most popular smartphones, running on both IBM Lotus Domino and Microsoft Exchange.