Office Mobility Blog

Including Free/Busy Lookup and Improved Attachment Support

A Blackberry Enterprise Server upgrade (4.1 SP5) was officially released by RIM a few days ago. This upgrade includes some much anticipated features such as free/busy calendar look-up and also added attachment support (downloading and editing of native email attachments).

It's important to note that some of these features will also require updated BlackBerry Device Software 4.5 (no official word at this point on when Device Software 4.5 will be available).

As far as Documents To Go is concerned, this is an important update as we will be providing support to edit native documents and email attachments on your BlackBerry. We know you've all been waiting patiently for Documents To Go to be available. This release is a big step in the right direction. More info should be available in the near future. Thanks to all of you for your patience, we promise Documents To Go for BlackBerry will be worth the wait! Make sure you're signed up for our BlackBerry announcement list so you'll know as soon as its available.

Posted by Jason Coup at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A recent press release out of Waterloo is proof that Research In Motion (RIM) is doing just fine in these difficult financial times. RIM’s fourth quarter profit for fiscal 2008 reached $1.88 billion, more than doubling fourth quarter numbers from fiscal 2007.

Along with this huge profit increase, RIM also added a net of 2.18 million new BlackBerry subscribers.

With bright spots like the OS 4.5 update right around the corner and the upcoming availability of Documents To Go for Office file and email attachment editing, Jim Balsillie (CEO, Research In Motion) doesn’t seem to think this growth will slow anytime soon:

"Looking forward, the prospects for RIM and the industry are more exciting than ever and we will continue to work closely with a thriving ecosystem of partners to build on our momentum during the year ahead."

RIM Press Release

Posted by Jason Coup at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While smart devices have been available for quite a few years now, mainstream acceptance is really just starting to ramp up as devices get sexier and prices drop. The RAZR was a step in this direction several years back; for many it was their first phone capable of doing more than making a call and playing snake.

It looks like the newest example of mass consumer appeal for smartphones could be the Palm Centro. Palm’s $99 offering has been “flying off the shelves” according to a recent press release which focused on the Centro crossing the 1 million unit mark in sales (it came out the day before April fools day so we’re pretty sure they were serious).

The Centro appears to be very popular among a younger and perhaps more price sensitive crowd. IDC analyst Ryan Reith touched on this in Palm’s release:

"Smartphones are certainly not new to business professionals; however, now more than ever we are seeing consumers migrate toward these types of devices as form factors have become more appealing and price points are now competing with traditional mobile phones. Palm's Centro plays right into the hands of the consumer looking for a more robust experience on their mobile phone. We definitely expect to see this trend continue worldwide."

With the combination of a low price point for consumers and the power of a huge developer community including high-end enterprise applications, this device could be just what Palm needs to re-join the elite in the smartphone space.

Posted by Jason Coup at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)