BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) has hit back in
its new legal battle, and launched BlackBerry Enterprise Server
Express, a bid to attract small businesses.
The company, which settled a patent suit with NTP for $612.5
million in March, has countersued in the new challenge it faces
from Visto.
RIM has asked for three of Visto's patents to be invalidated,
and said that it will "consider asserting its own patents against
Visto" - moves very reminiscent of the early stages of its
long-running struggle against NTP.
Visto sued RIM after a court found that a third mobile email
player, Seven Networks, had infringed its patent, and ordered Seven
to pay $3.6 million damages. Seven is the number two player in
mobile email, with around a million users, compared to RIM's 5
million.
Visto shouldn't count its chickens, though, as Seven hopes to
reverse the earlier judgement. "We don't expect to pay any money,"
said Paul Hedman, managing director EMEA of Seven. "We will be
shipping a workaround in the next version which will not use the
disputed technology."
BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express is a downloadable version
of the server, aimed at small businesses, instead of the large
companies that have been RIM's main customer base so far. The
software can be used for free, as long as the user company only has
one BlackBerry handset attached to it. Even for one user, it should
be an improvement over the BlackBerry Internet Server which is
administered by third-party operators.
The Small Business Edition will support up to 15 users, if the
company buys licences for them, and users can buy a software key
that upgrades it to a full BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
Despite this move to encourage BlackBerry use in small
businesses, RIM is still hampered by the limitation to expensive
handsets - its BlackBerry Connect scheme to put clients on other
phones has not been a huge success as yet. "To reach a mass market,
mobile email must be available on a broad range of handsets," said
Hedman.
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