Funambol has released a position paper that discusses Google Android and the Funambol Open Source impact on the mass market for mobile email. The paper, entitled “How Google Android Stimulates the Mass Market for Mobile Email and how Funambol Mobile Open Source Monetizes It”, discusses how Google Android will spur adoption of mobile email by large numbers of people and how Google Android and Funambol can transform the market. Funambol is the leading provider of Mobile 2.0 messaging software powered by open source.
Also in the paper, Funambol poses–and answers questions for the mobile industry like:
— How will mass market mobile email be enabled by Android and Funambol?
— What do the new market dynamics mean to prices and control within the industry?
— How do mobile service providers make money in this new environment?
— Who are the new telecom winners and losers?
The introduction of the paper talks about the future of mobile email:
If you could view how mobile email will be used in the future, what would you see? Will everyone use mobile email or will it remain the province of a few? What mobile industry companies will be stronger or weaker than they are today? And what impact will Google Android and Funambol mobile open source make on mobile email? To answer these questions, let’s take a look at the future users of mobile email, what they want in a solution and the mobile email value chain.
The Funambol paper talks about the following:
— Mass market mobile email trends and user requirements
— The mobile email value chain and the end game for mobile email
— What is Google Android — and what is it not?
— What are Google’s aspirations for mobile and for mobile email in particular?
— How can mobile operators and service providers benefit from S.O.S. — standards, open source and synchronization
Funambol is working with its community to build an open source client for Android to enable it to work with the Funambol server. Once Android-enabled phones come to market, Funambol will enable people to use their phone for push email, contacts and calendars, as well as for syncing all types of content. This provides other companies in the mobile industry with a way to embrace rather than compete with Android.
Funambol provides mobile 2.0 messaging software that is powered by open source. The company is the leading provider of open source push email and PIM synchronization solutions for mass market consumers. Funambol’s open source software has been downloaded more than 1,500,000 times by a global network of 10,000 developers in 200 countries. The commercial version of Funambol’s software has been deployed at service providers, mobile operators, portals, device manufacturers and ISVs including customers such as 1&1, Earthlink and Computer Associates. Funambol is headquartered in Redwood City, California with an R&D center in Italy.