It’s all kicked off today in the “push email” arena. True “push email” is promised on Windows Mobile devices early in 2006, however a company called Visto have taken great exception to the technology being used by Microsoft to do this, saying that it infringes “multiple patents that Visto hold regarding proprietary technology that provides enterprises and consumers with mobile access to their email and other data.” (Full Press Release here)
Now this could put a serious spanner in the works for the release of the Microsoft Direct Push Technology which is to come in the Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP) for Windows Mobile 5.0.
To make matters worse, just a few hours before they annouced their action against Microsoft, Visto signed a life-time licensing agreement with NTP (a company who has a lawsuit open with RIM for similar issues). Then NTP moved to acquire part of Visto. Together, both RIM with the Blackberry and Microsoft with Windows Mobile 5.0 are apparently using the NTP/Visto portfolio of patents that relate to mobile access to email and data. (Press Release about that here)
So.. the day couldn’t get much worse for Microsoft and RIM could it ? Well.. you’d think not, until Visto announced Japan’s First “True Push” Wireless Email service on Vodafone. Doah, doah and indeed… doah.
Visto are also marketing “ConstantSync” which gives.. err.. real-time push based email for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices… DOAH!