Synch targets emerging mkts
Synchronica PLC
08 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 in
emerging markets
Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, 8 February 2008
Royal Tunbridge Wells - Synchronica (AIM: SYNC), the international provider of
mobile email and synchronization solutions, announces that the latest version of
its ground-breaking mobile email software, Mobile Gateway 3.5, now works with
more than three billion phones in use around the world today. For emerging
markets, 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/consumer
subscribers, regardless of which handset they use.
Synchronica is making significant in-roads into emerging markets, with the first
mobile operator having launched Mobile Gateway and another 15 operators
currently trialling the software.
Carsten Brinkschulte, Synchronica's CEO, comments: "Mobile operators in emerging
markets have been telling us that they see a strong market for mass-market
mobile email and look at mobile email as a way to get around the inherent
problems caused by low fixed line and PC penetration. The challenge has been
finding a mobile email solution that works with all phones in use today and does
not need additional client software to be installed on the device. With Mobile
Gateway 3.5, we have added the last piece of the jigsaw, by enabling any mobile
phone user, regardless of which handset they use, to access their email easily
from their phone.
Brinkschulte continues: "All forecasts point to emerging markets as the
breakthrough 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 almost
tripled in the last five years and they now account for 58 per cent of
subscribers worldwide(2). All of this bodes well for mobile email, when you
consider that the number of email users in India outstrips the number of PCs in
the country. Recent trips to emerging markets convinced me that mobile operators
in these regions now have the opportunity to make the mobile phone the primary
device for accessing the Internet and our 'mobile email for all' solution can
become the most popular data service generating recurring revenues and
preventing 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 and
synchronization services for virtually all mass market feature phones and
smartphones being used by subscribers today. Based on the dominant open industry
standards Push IMAP (LEMONADE) for mobile email and SyncML (OMA DS) for contact
and calendar synchronization, it works with the built-in Email and
synchronization clients found in more than 1.5 billion phones. The new Email to
SMS functionality expands its reach to virtually every phone in use today.
Serving consumers and prosumers, Mobile Gateway includes back-end support for
POP3 and IMAP mailboxes, connecting to popular services such as AOL or Google
Mail. For business users, it provides a unique zero footprint architecture where
users simply register their devices and instantly start to receive corporate
email on their phone without requiring additional connectors behind the
firewall. Business mailboxes supported include Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino
and Sun Communications Suite.
About Synchronica
Synchronica plc develops and markets industry standard mobile email and
synchronization solutions for the vast majority of devices in the market today.
Mobile operators, device manufacturers and service providers in emerging and
developed markets use Synchronica products to offer mobile email, PIM
synchronization and backup & restore services to their consumer and corporate
customer base. Products include the push email and synchronization solution
Mobile Gateway and the mass-market device backup solution Mobile Backup.
Headquartered in the UK with a development centre in Germany and a presence in
Hong Kong, Dubai and U.S. Synchronica plc is a public company traded on the AIM
list of the London Stock Exchange (SYNC.LN). More information is available at
www.synchronica.com.
For more information, please contact:
Nicole Meissner
Chief Marketing Officer
Tel.: +44 1892 552 780
Mobile U.K.: +44 7977 256 412
Mobile D: +49 173 6069 160
Fax: +44 1892 552 721
nicole.meissner@synchronica.com
--------------------------
(1) Data from Light Reading, March 2007 (statistics show growth between Dec '05
and Dec '06). Other countries that feature in Light Reading's Top Ten Emerging
Mobile Markets report include: Pakistan (up 147% to 48.3 million) Bangladesh (up
135% to 21.8m) and Nigeria (up 38% to 30m).
(2) Data from study of world trade and development conference of the United
Nations (UNCTAD)February 2008.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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