EAST SUSSEX, U.K.—Open-source mobile e-mail developer Synchronica plc said it scored a deal with IXI Mobile Inc. to provide push e-mail for Ogo devices.
IXI purchased the license to Syncronica’s SyncML Gateway, which provides wireless synchronization of e-mail, contacts and calendar information between handsets and Microsoft Corp.’s Exchange or Sun Java’s Enterprise System. Ogo devices were available in the United States through AT&T Wireless services Inc. and for a short time by Cingular Wireless L.L.C. following Cingular’s acquisition of AWS in late 2004, but has since been discontinued. The device is also marketed in Germany and Turkey.
Synchronica, like California-based developer Funambol Inc., hopes to gain traction in the market and avoid the courtroom with SyncML, which is also known as Open Mobile Alliance Data Synchronization. The companies believe open source technology may protect them from the flurry of litigation that has plagued Research In Motion Ltd. and other mobile e-mail providers.
“Mobile operators have every interest in rolling out mobile e-mail solutions to their networks, and see it as an indispensable element in their competitive strategy,” Datamonitor analyst Alaa Owaineh said in a prepared statement. “Mobile e-mail is on the verge of mass-market adoption.”
