With Research In Motion plagued by the ongoing patent fight with NTP Technologies, Microsoft could be in position to woo away some enterprise BlackBerry users.
Microsoft touted its Direct Push technology during the 3GSM Word Conference in Barcelona, with the company noting in a statement the integration between Windows Mobile 5.0 and Exchange Server 2003 SP2.
Also, Microsoft said Direct Push for its Small Business Server is available, and that several global mobile operators offer the solution as a hosted service. Some prominent names appear in that list of worldwide providers: Cingular, Orange, Vodafone, and T-Mobile.
As it did in announcements last June, Microsoft repeatedly cited how its solution works without requiring additional servers or middleware. It’s a direct shot at RIM’s business model, one that will certainly be mentioned by Microsoft’s sales and marketing teams when courting current RIM customers.
RIM faces a possible shutdown of its US services by the courts, and has been actively informing customers of a workaround to use should the court decide to issue an injunction. US government agencies use Blackberries by the thousands along with the various businesses in private enterprise.
The government also does a lot of business with Microsoft. Should federal agencies decide to switch from RIM to Microsoft’s solutions, RIM would be hard-pressed to replace that much revenue coming from the U.S.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
