Mobile companies merger as market moves foirward

The mobile e-mail market is still very small, but it is estimated that by the end of 2008, 80 percent of e-mail users will access their mail by mobile phone.

That expected growth in the market has seen the creation of a number of small mobile e-mail companies, including Good Technology, Visto, and Intellisync, and one large mobile e-mail provider, Research In Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry.

Analysts believe that before any of these smaller providers will be able to challenge RIM or Microsoft, which is expected to enter the market, for a significant share of the market, these smaller companies are going to have to undergo consolidation.

This consolidation seems to be beginning with the acquisition of Smartner, a Finnish mobile e-mail company, by the U.S. mobile e-mail company Seven in an effort to mount a challenge to RIM.

Seven’s chief executive sees the merger as an advantage to both his company and Smartner, saying that the joining of the two companies creates an entity with more world-wide coverage, and thus presumably an ability to more effectively challenge RIM.

Story link: Mobile companies merger as market moves foirward