Nokia targets enterprise space with email plan

Leading mobile handset vendor Nokia upped its game in the enterprise space on Wednesday, announcing plans to extend Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to all of its S60 3rd Edition devices.

A total of 43 Nokia gadgets will now support the Mail for Exchange mobile email application, with future releases of the E and N series platforms featuring the app preinstalled.

According to the Finnish firm’s own figures to the end of July, this means around 80 million mobile phone owners worldwide will now be able to connect to an Exchange Server. By comparison, Research In Motion’s (RIMs) total BlackBerry subscriber based reached 16 million at the end of May.

It’s not really a fair comparison, given that not all of Nokia’s devices will be used for any kind of email, never mind corporate email, whereas the majority of RIM’s probably are. But one thing is clear, Nokia’s move this week is a clear attack on RIM’s market share in the enterprise space.

Although Nokia dominates the smartphone market by a significant margin, RIM is enjoying a second place position with higher than average year on year growth. There is also increasing competition coming from the likes of HTC and new market challenger Apple.

But RIM also stepped up its presence in the consumer space this week, with the launch of its first clamshell device – a sure sign that the BlackBerry maker has got its eye on Nokia/Symbian’s market share.