Microsoft gets pushy about mobile email

Microsoft said on Sunday that its long-awaited push email capability for mobile devices is finally heading into the market.

Although Microsoft is offering push email abilities later than some mobile specialists, such as Good Technology and RIM, the company said the numbers are still on its side. Although there are a billion mobile phones and 400 million Outlook email users worldwide, only about 10 million people are getting their corporate email delivered to their phones.

Microsoft vice president Suzan DelBene said in a telephone interview on Friday: "We look at the universe out there and we know there is just a huge, huge opportunity yet to be met."

Push email gets forwarded to a device as it comes in on the server, as opposed to pull email, in which a user has to manually retrieve email or get it at a certain time.

Microsoft has been promising push email for some time but it has taken awhile to get all the pieces in place. The technology was made possible by combining devices running Windows Mobile 5 with servers using Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2. The final piece, a messaging and security service pack, was shipped last year but had yet to show up on devices in the market.

The software maker said that a number of carriers, including Cingular Wireless, Orange, Sprint, T-Mobile and Vodafone, are offering free upgrades for customers that will allow them to get the "Direct Push" email abilities as well as new security features.

In addition, Microsoft said several new devices will contain the necessary software for push email, including HP's iPaq hw6900 Mobile Messenger, the Fujitsu Siemens FS Pocket Loox and the Gigabyte g-Smart, which will be offered by Chungwa Telecom in Taiwan. HTC also said it will have a number of new devices available globally to T-Mobile and other operators beginning in the second quarter of this year.

Microsoft is making the push email announcement at the start of the 3GSM World Congress, a mobile phone trade show that is taking place in Barcelona. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is slated to deliver a keynote speech there on Tuesday.

Separately, Microsoft is announcing a deal at the show that will allow its Windows Mobile operating system to run on phones using a single-core Texas Instruments chipset.

Mobile phone makers Amoi Electronics, HTC and Sagem Communication all said they planned to develop Windows-based devices using TI's chips. Phones using Microsoft's OS and TI's chips are expected to ship within 12 months, Microsoft said.

Ina Fried writes for CNET News.com