Nokia Nixes BlackBerry Service
In a move apparently designed to bring more differentiation to the smartphone market, Nokia has stated they are dropping BlackBerry Connect support from their business-oriented E-series smartphones. In a statement to customers; the Europhone powerhouse said the following:
RIM are a competitor and have done a reasonable job in a space that is traditionally ours, so it’s no great surprise that we see this as an opportunity to give consumers a proper choice on what email solution they want.
“A space that is traditionally ours”…? Those are fighting words. Nokia’s new E-71 QUERTY smartphone lacks all trace of the ability to make use of RIMs email services, so that the only option is Nokia’s own email service which according to many users is not ready for prime time. Hopefully the feature will improve fast now that Nokia’s massive customer base will not have the option to use BlackBerry emailing instead on Nokia handsets.
Beyond being a somewhat logical business move to push their own brand in the massively lucrative mobile email business, in the long term this will further handicap Nokia smartphones in the US market. In the US BlackBerry has a very firm hold on the business and corporate email market, with WinMo in second. Symbian, the European smartphone OS of choice but already little seen in the US, will now have an even tougher row to hoe with a proprietary and substandard email client.
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