Released on: January 31, 2008, 10:04 am

Press Release Author: Synchronica

Industry: Telecommunications

Press Release Summary: 2008 will be the year when mobile email and backup and
restore for mobile devices take off, in particular in emerging markets. We will see
massive growth in mobile email in the consumer space due to the successful adoption
of industry standards such as IMAP (LEMONADE) and SyncML, bringing high-value
services to low-cost devices. Additionally, as many users now use their phone as the
only repository for storing contact information, we will see an increase in
operators offering consumers backup and restore services to insure their social
networks when devices are lost, stolen, or upgraded.

Press Release Body: Royal Tunbridge Wells, February 1, 2008. - 2008 will be the year
when mobile email and backup and restore for mobile devices take off, in particular
in emerging markets. We will see massive growth in mobile email in the consumer
space due to the successful adoption of industry standards such as IMAP (LEMONADE)
and SyncML, bringing high-value services to low-cost devices. Additionally, as many
users now use their phone as the only repository for storing contact information, we
will see an increase in operators offering consumers backup and restore services to
insure their social networks when devices are lost, stolen, or upgraded.

For years, mobile operators have been striving to increase ARPU from mobile data
services: MMS, mobile TV, user created content, and mobile social networking, to
name some, but these services have so far enjoyed limited success. We are now seeing
signs that the market for consumer mobile email is set to grow exponentially from
eight million accounts last year to a massive 184 million consumer mobile email
accounts by 2011*.

The popularity of email will drive increased mobile data usage and, therefore, ARPU.

Mobile Email for the Masses

Until recently, mobile email use has been limited to business users who can afford
to buy an expensive smartphone and are willing to accept a costly data plan. But
there have been strong signs over the course of 2007 that the age of mobile email
for the masses is upon us. The combination of the adoption of industry standards
enabling push email on mass market feature phones and affordable service plans is
set to make mobile email for the mass market a reality. Evidence of this shift is
seen in particular in emerging markets, where fixed-line infrastructure is limited
and PC penetration is low, whilst mobile phone penetration is soaring.

It is my belief that the mobile operators in emerging markets now have the
opportunity to make the mobile phone the primary method of accessing the internet,
with mobile email probably being the most popular application for both business
users and consumers. As a result, I can see mobile email consumption in the emerging
markets of Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern
Europe leapfrogging the \'developed world\' in Western Europe and the U.S., which will
mostly remain limited to high-end business user email.

However, to make this happen, it is important to use middleware that can support the
majority of the mobile phones that are already out there in those markets.
Communication only works if it can be sent and received; so, by using standards such
as IMAP (LEMONADE), SyncML, and email-to-SMS conversion, we will see email and
synchronization services extended to every single mobile phone on the planet.

While we are all drawn to sexy new devices such as the Apple iPhone, the fact is
that smartphones represent only a tiny portion of the addressable market. The vast
majority of phones in use today (and in the foreseeable future) are mass market
feature phones. Therefore, it is essential for service providers to offer push email
and synchronization solutions that work well on the phones that are already in
users\' hands today. In 2008, the time is right for mobile data pricing plans to fall
and, as customer numbers increase, we will start to see mobile email becoming the
next generation SMS.

The problem today is that most mobile email solutions are based on proprietary
protocols, requiring users to download additional client software. This approach is
set to fail in the mass market, where the overwhelming majority are using feature
phones that cannot effectively use proprietary clients. Time and again it has been
proven that consumers won\'t adopt services that are hard to setup or difficult to
use. They want to be able to use mobile services on standard mobile phones right out
of the box - no software installation, no fiddly configuration, no expensive
proprietary devices.

The only viable option is for service providers to use open standards to interface
with the built-in email applications that are shipping pre-installed with the vast
majority of devices today, enabling both smartphone and mass market feature phones
to receive push email or converting email to SMS so that the message can be received
on even the most basic phones. Once they have gotten that part sorted out, operators
need to ensure a seamless setup by adding automatic client provisioning of the
built-in email and synchronization applications.

Backup and Restore for the Masses

I also expect to see a surge in demand from consumers for a backup-and-restore
facility for their mobile devices in 2008. This is because consumers depend
increasingly on their mobile devices as the primary repository for vital information
such as phone numbers and addresses. If a person\'s phone is lost or stolen or
upgraded, then all his or her contact details disappear with it. For most users
today, it is the information on the phone, rather than the device itself, which is
of highest value.

We will therefore see an increase in demand for a low-cost facility from service
providers - a kind of insurance policy for personal information - which will allow
consumers to backup and restore their contact information over the air. As well as
providing a safety net for consumers who lose their phones, a backup and restore
service also makes upgrading to a new phone easier. Customers simply use the backup
and restore facility to transfer their contact information and saved SMS messages
over the air to their new phone.

Again, the only viable means of doing this is for service providers to offer easy to
use, standards-based solutions that work with the majority of devices already in the
market. This calls for SyncML-based solutions that work with the native applications
on devices, rather than requiring a complicated download. To setup those
applications automatically also calls for seamless client provisioning. This
combination of capabilities makes a backup and restore service easy and appealing
for the mass market, driving rapid take-up rates.

Conclusion

In summary, 2008 will see the mass market benefiting from recent advances in data
synchronization and messaging facilitated by middleware based on open industry
standards. Mobile email will start to explode, in particular in emerging markets,
which will leapfrog the so-called developed world. And more service providers will
begin to offer their subscribers a robust over-the-air backup and restore facility
to insure their social networks.

*Source: Visiongain Mobile Email Market Report

Background Information

Synchronica\'s Mobile Gateway push email and synchronization middleware provides
carrier-grade scalability with load balancing and failover on any J2EE application
server using Solaris, Linux, or Windows servers. It supports IMAP / SMTP for email
and includes support for both the IMAP Idle and OMA EMN industry standards for push
email. In addition, it includes support for SyncML (OMA DS) for the synchronization
of calendars, contacts, notes, and tasks. For service activation, it features a
provisioning module (OMA CP), enabling over-the-air configuration of the built-in
IMAP / SMTP and SyncML clients.

Database of compatible devices:
http://www.synchronica.com/products/compatible-mobile-devices.php

Information to setup your free mobile email trial:
http://www.synchronica.com/syncml-demos/demos.html

Synchronica\'s Mobile Backup solution includes support for SyncML (OMA DS) for
backing up and restoring contact and calendar data on the majority of mobile phones
in the market today. It also features an automatic provisioning module (OMA CP) that
enables remote, over-the-air automated setup of the service for subscribers.

More about Synchronica: http://www.synchronica.com

For more information, please contact:

Nicole Meissner
Chief Marketing Officer
Tel.: +44 1892 552 780
Mobile: +44 7977 256 412
Fax: +44 1892 552 721
nicole.meissner@synchronica.com


Web Site: http://www.synchronica.com

Contact Details: Synchronica plc
Mount Pleasant House
Lonsdale Gardens
Royal Tunbridge Wells
TN1 1NY
United Kingdom

Tel.: +44 1892 552 720
Fax: +44 1892 552 721

info@synchronica.com