Good Technology tries to go one better on BlackBerry

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May 9, 2002 (Computerworld) -- Good Technology Inc. announced a direct competitor to the popular BlackBerry today, promising an easier enterprise setup and management system for wireless e-mail and data access.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Good Technology started signing up enterprise accounts last October using software that runs on BlackBerry devices from Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) in Waterloo, Ontario, with Good's secure e-mail servers, Good officials said.
Good, which boasts 20 enterprise wireless e-mail accounts, announced today that it will expand its offering with its own wireless data device, the G100, and an enterprise data access server, called GoodInfo, this summer. Good will also support devices by Palm Inc. and the Microsoft Pocket PC platform, said CEO Daniel Shader in an interview.
Analyst Ken Dulaney at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn., said RIM has been highly successful with influential users, but that Good offers "the first head-to-head competition to RIM ... because it is a better RIM solution than RIM." He cited the easier functionality of Good software in accessing Exchange e-mail, and the likelihood that enterprises will need fewer servers than they would with RIM.
Both methods boast Triple DES security, Dulaney said.
Several of Good's customers provided written testimonials about their success with the GoodLink e-mail server but didn't provide direct comparisons to RIM.
"Silicon Valley Bank strives to provide the best possible customer service to clients, so we deployed GoodLink to our managers to improve customer response time," said Rebekah Westlake, IT manager at the Santa Clara, Calif.-based bank. Managers aren't required to cradle their handhelds to synchronize and can even see attachments in Exchange on their handhelds, she said. Coming improvements include support for Lotus Notes, Shader said.
While Good argues that its method is easier for users because no synchronization is needed to access all Exchange functions, RIM officials said they haven't made all functions wireless to reduce the cost of airtime.
"You don't want to do big bulk syncs wirelessly in order to save bandwidth," Mike Lazaridis, RIM founder and president, said in an interview. He said that Good is "not a threat" to RIM and its announcement is "overblown" because every feature Good has announced will soon be provided by RIM.
Currently, RIM supports Lotus Domino and Notes, as well as Exchange. In terms of other technology comparisons, analysts noted that RIM provides a voice capability in its 5810 model that Good's device will not. And Good functions over the Mobitex network, while BlackBerry users can choose four different networks.
Currently, RIM requires synchronization to a laptop or a desktop to delete e-mails or to gain access to the Exchange address or the memo pad function.
RIM has 321,000BlackBerry e-mail subscribers, a number some industry observers find relatively small but still important. "The RIM users are influential, and the full value of wireless e-mail is still yet to hit us," Dulaney said.

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