Nokia pushes push with E series handsets

The fact that these handsets are all running the very latest version of Symbian (v.9.1) as well as being built on Nokia's latest platform, Series 60 3rd edition, has been somewhat obscured by the emphasis on email.

Plus, buried away in the specifications is the fact that they can offer support for Wi-Fi as well as 3G (W-CDMA & EDGE). So if you happen to own the very latest switchboard from the likes of Avaya or Cisco, you can already run VoIP calls on your mobile phone instead of having to pay cellular call rates.

But let's get back to email. Six fruity flavours of 'push' email no less. Heading up the list, of course, is support for Blackberry Connect from RIM. Then we have two offerings from Seven - Mobile Mail and Always-On Mail. Hmm - both push??

Then we have Goodlink from Good and Mobile from Visto. Plus a brand new offering - Nokia's very own home grown Business Center.

If you then try to look at installed userbases and market shares, things get very interesting indeed. For example, some mobile operators are claimed as clients by multiple vendors. Particularly the Italian operators, it seems.

Then you get into arguments over how many devices actually sport 'true' push email clients. If you have to open up a browser to trigger email deliveries, then it's not got a proper client has it?

All of this is pretty bad news for Intellisync which was doing its best to convince the INQ it is Number Two in this market because it is platform independent and includes full PIM syncing too. And has been left out. Nice try but no banana this time.

If you're going to claim dinky extra features, then Visto's recently announced Voice response is cool. Received a lengthy email? Two fingered typist? Why not reply by recording a voice message and treating that as a file attachment instead. Execs will love that.

If you've bought into the idea of mail on you phone, then Nokia's three E designs cater for most tastes. There's the 'who-am-i-kidding-i-can't-type' plain candy bar phone - the E60. There's the subtle fold-out keyboard model, the E70.

Finally there's the gosh-that-looks-like-a-Blackberry, E61. The INQ tried the E61's keyboard last night and it was very Blackberry in feel. So with a bit of practice, you could soon learn to type fast.

So push email isn't just hotting up, it's been well and truly hyped up now as well. µ