CHICAGO-In a wireless data environment increasingly cluttered with multiple email addresses and multiple wireless devices, Postini Corp. is hoping to score with a simple solution-enabling end users to read emails on wireless devices.
Postini plans to do this using the customer’s existing email address and existing wireless device.
The company’s AirPostini application, unveiled at PCIA GlobalXchange last week in Chicago, is targeted at Internet service providers and email service providers as a value-added service.
“ESPs that use AirPostini will position themselves as the critical bridge between the converging email and wireless markets,” said Scott Petry, founder and vice president of marketing for the Redwood City, Calif.-based company.
Only 2 percent of wireless users today receive mobile data on their wireless devices, even though 65 percent of users would like the option of reading email on their wireless devices.
AirPostini sits on the edge of the email provider’s network, much like a proxy server, so ISPs and ESPs do not have to modify their servers to offer the application.
End users can control the parameters for receiving email wirelessly, so they can specify that only urgent messages or only messages from their spouse or coworker are passed through to their wireless phone, personal digital assistant or pager, Petry noted. Users can also select `do-not-disturb’ times when messages will not be forwarded.
Postini’s Message Platform is based on its Email Pre-processing Infrastructure, which also enables its two other applications, junk email and virus protection services. About 1.5 million people use those applications through a handful of ISPs, Petry said.
The 50-employee company was founded in 1999 and has received more than $9 million in first-round funding from August Capital and seven strategic investors.
