Yahoo's Zimbra ships 5.0 suite upgrade

IDG News Service - While parent company Yahoo Inc. mulls an unsolicited acquisition bid from Microsoft Corp., Zimbra Inc. today shipped a version of its e-mail and collaboration software suite that adds support for BlackBerry devices and Outlook 2007.

Version 5.0 of the Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) lets users synchronize e-mail, contacts, calendars and to-do lists with Outlook 2007.

Meanwhile, it also extends the suite's mobile reach via support for the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, allowing users to access Zimbra on all BlackBerry devices. Also on the mobile front, the upgrade lets users tap into Zimbra from J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition) devices and from any mobile Web browser, including the iPhone's.

"Mobility is a huge strategic priority and an area where we'll invest a lot," Satish Dharmaraj, Yahoo vice president and Zimbra co-founder, said in an interview before Microsoft's $44.6 billion unsolicited bid for Yahoo was announced on Friday.

There has been heavy interest among Zimbra's enterprise and education customers for BlackBerry support, while consumer clients have pushed for J2ME and mobile Web access, he said, adding that Zimbra plans to build a native application for the iPhone.

In addition, the suite's Web client now has a to-do application for task management, an instant messaging application that allows group chats, and the ability to work while offline using Zimbra Desktop.

The expanded mobile access and the offline support are important enhancements that will resonate in the enterprise market, where the Yahoo association doesn't help Zimbra, said Rebecca Wettemann, an analyst at Nucleus Research. "Those are key pieces for them," she said.

With ZCS 5.0, Zimbra is also making available optional "zimlets," or widgets, that link the suite with Yahoo services such as Flickr, Yahoo Local, Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Search. Meanwhile, Zimbra technology will be brought to Yahoo Mail and Calendar later this year.

Zimbra provides 11 million paid mailboxes to customers in more than 70 countries. Customers include Red Hat Inc., Texas A&M University, European Internet service provider Eircom Ltd. and Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.

ZCS 5.0 is free in its Open Source Edition, while fees vary for the Network Edition commercial version, which customers can try out for free for 60 days. ZCS can be downloaded and installed by customers on premises or used as Web-hosted software-as-a-service.

In addition to its core e-mail application, the suite also has a word processor and a spreadsheet application that let users create, share and collaboratively edit documents. It has a calendar and contacts list as well.

ZCS competes against Microsoft Office and Exchange in the on-premises software market, and against Google Apps, Zoho and Cisco Systems Inc.'s WebEx in the software-as-a-service market.