Ahh, the death knell rings for GoodLink again. Been hearing that for years. Let's address a couple of things:
1) MSFP is not push. Now, to the average end-user, it doesn't matter that the device is driving all activity. However, it WILL matter when the battery life on their devices is, shall we say, less than optimal.
2) The security issues within MSFT products is well documented. Gartner has already said that if you are planning on using MSFP, plan on getting a third party security solution.
3) Wireless messaging is just the start. RIM with MDS for back office application access, Good Mobile Defense for device security, has both organzations well ahead of MSFT for the 'beyond email' market.
4) MSFP is not as easy as MSFT would have you think. If you listen to the boys in Redmond, it is just a matter of checking a check box and ta-da, push email. An interesting article at
http://www.emailbattles.com/archive/...aadbhhcfic_be/ gives a bit of detail. It references
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/its...pdepguide.mspx for deployment.
5) MSFP, as already noted, requires WM5 devices and Exchange 2003 with SP2. Now, granted, the majority of new devices being released are running WM5, however, with no Palm or Symbian support, not Notes support, and only Exchange 2003, the addressable market share is smaller than that of RIM and, once we release our Notes solution, Good.
6) One factor that has remained unaddressed is the carriers. They are all about ARPU (average revenue per unit) and MSFT commoditizes their bandwidth. Incidentally, we are seeing MSFP as being a bandwidth hog when compared to RIM and Good. This is especially painful on the CDMA network since if the data connection is open, no voice can come through. EV-DO Rev A will fix this, but that is a bit out.
I am not turning this into a RIM vs Good debate as that horse has been beat to death. The bottom line, IMO, is that MSFT is a good 18-24 months out from being a true, enterprise ready solution. Good and RIM will lose some customer, especially in the SMB space, however, I think both organizations will gain more than they lose since the MSFT marketing machine will be going into overtime 'pushing' wireless email.