Techworld reports that Funambol is offering an open source email client for the new iPhone, and has won £8 million VC funding to helps its initiative to offer a free alternative to the BlackBerry.
Funambol offers a free, open source email server which can take the place of a BlackBerry service, according to the article. The company has client software for around 850 handsets, including one for the new iPhone using the new iPhone SDK, which syncs PIM information with a variety of email systems including Microsoft Exchange. The company offers the software free to businesses, and plans to make its money on the Carrier version which is licensed to operators.
'Blackberry only reaches 2% of the market,' said Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of Funambol, quoted in the article. He added, 'Three billion people have SMS, and we'll move them to the next step: mobile email.' Even if users will only pay €5 a month for mobile email, that's a lot of potential revenue for operators that take the Carrier version, he says - and he also proposes that consumers will take free ad-funded email.
The Funambol Community edition has a MySQL-style open source licence, and can be used freely: 'If you are an enterprise, and you have an Exchange mail server, you can download our server, plug into the mail back end, and start pushing email to all users, not just to the CEO who has a Blackberry,' he said. The company has a client for Blackberry phones as well.
Funambol offers a free, open source email server which can take the place of a BlackBerry service, according to the article. The company has client software for around 850 handsets, including one for the new iPhone using the new iPhone SDK, which syncs PIM information with a variety of email systems including Microsoft Exchange. The company offers the software free to businesses, and plans to make its money on the Carrier version which is licensed to operators.
'Blackberry only reaches 2% of the market,' said Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of Funambol, quoted in the article. He added, 'Three billion people have SMS, and we'll move them to the next step: mobile email.' Even if users will only pay €5 a month for mobile email, that's a lot of potential revenue for operators that take the Carrier version, he says - and he also proposes that consumers will take free ad-funded email.
The Funambol Community edition has a MySQL-style open source licence, and can be used freely: 'If you are an enterprise, and you have an Exchange mail server, you can download our server, plug into the mail back end, and start pushing email to all users, not just to the CEO who has a Blackberry,' he said. The company has a client for Blackberry phones as well.