Mobile Solutions CI

The strange and enduring saga of Visto and what it means for mobile social networking

At CTIA this year I somehow completely missed the fact that Visto has rebranded itself as Good after acquiring the IP and brand from Motorola.

It's amazing to me that Visto is still trundling along. Changing the name and brand makes a lot of sense given Visto's aggressive litigation, brash claims of growth which it never fulfilled, and history of burning through large amounts of VC cash.

And now they have acquired moblie social networking tools provider intercasting.

On paper this might make sense. In the real world it will further delay any real progress in the one area Visto needs to make progress: Acquiring customers for its existing operator customers. Good had a very nice client UI but the server--yikes. Integrating that technology into Visto's roadmap would take a good 1-2 years. And now to add a third layer of complexity?

This further opens the window for an upstream player, either an OS provider such as Android or a service provider concentrating on one flagship OS, to develop a complete service experience based on the mobile social address book. The startups and technology vendors trying to bring white label and third party social networking tools and integration are getting bogged down in a spaghetti code fest of features rather than focusing on defining and driving the key user stories and experiences which will define the platform. This is why Twitter exists and is exploding and creates a huge window of opportunity for the player with the resolve to focus on service experience rather than features. Who will that be?

Motorola Good opening up NOC

Motorola's Good announced a managed service VPN as part of Good 6.o, it's new product release, this summer.

The current issue of Informa Groups Mobile Messaging Analyst addresses this in an article citing  Hugh Stevenson, EMEA business-development manager for Good Technology in th eMotorola Enterprise Mobility unit.

This article positions the VPN as simply a first productized offer for Motorola to use Good's NOC to launch managed services to SMB's worldwide. It's an interesting model on several points: bypasses carriers (presumably through IT channel), offers product as managed service, and changes value prop from product/application layer to service delivery (i.e. commoditizes NOC to offer as managed secure bandwidth).

It will be very interesting to see what uptake this has relative to Microsoft's play to go server-side to achieve the same things with SC MDM.

Good announces GMM 6.0 with hosted VPN and DM

Good announced a new product version today. Good becomes a direct competitor to both white label solutions and BTF vendors with this new product announcement. here

Some additional details:

The suite will include Good Mobile Connection, Good Administration Center and Good Mobile Messaging. This will be available as BTF or has hosted/managed service for VARs and operators to offer their customers.

Product Overview

Good Mobile Connection:

Managed service VPN that enables a smartphone or mobile device to connect to any application or resource behind the corporate firewall like instant messaging, intranets and thick-client applications.

Offers persistent network-agnostic connection through the Good Network Operations Center to behind-the-firewall data and applications. Doing so lets users deploy any application leveraging standard TCP protocols over the Good Mobile Connection transport with no modifications or custom coding required.

The VPN does not require continual log-ins if a connection is lost. It automatically re-establishes the connection and starts the session again.

Lets users set restrictions on the type and location of assets that can be accessed behind firewall in addition to the device-level security features of the Good Mobility Suite.

Good Administration Center

OTA management of applications, devices, software distribution and troubleshooting, fleet reporting, security polices and data access rights from web console

Contains unspecified APIs to "enable automated management operations and integrate with other third party management portals and processes".

GMM

Customizable home screen

Client APIs which let third party applications easily interoperate

Voice activated dialing even when the device is password protected

Pricing and availability not detailed.

Motorola Good's repositioning

There have been a couple of interesting articles about Motorola Good in recent weeks. Good is being wrapped into Symbol both from the product side and in its Go-to-Market.

A few weeks ago Moto announced it was "making it (Good) available to more than 12,000 VARs through its PartnerSelect" channel program. Here is the most important part:

"Motorola's PartnerSelect VARs will now offer a family of bundled mobile computing solutions comprising Good Mobile Messaging and Good Mobile Intranet on a choice of mobile devices, such as the MC35, MC50 and MC70, devices that stem from Motorola's acquisition of Symbol Technologies in 2006. Good solutions can also be offered on Motorola's Q family of smartphones and a variety of other smartphones from Palm, HTC and Samsung. Resellers can package the bundled solutions with device activations and vertical applications."

Moto is also announcing that Good will be the front end for Symbol: "In the coming months, Good Technology plans to release more products and services that let an enterprise manage devices from the "shop floor to the corner office" using the same systems."

Motorola to spin off handset division

Motorola plans to split into two companies next year, responding to activist investor moves by spinning out its mobile handset business into a publicly traded company that will operate separately from its broadband and mobility-solutions businesses.

In 2009, two publicly-listed companies will be created, one focusing on mobile phones and the other combining the home and networks business and enterprise mobility unit. The enterpise mobility unit contains fast-growing Symbol and also the Good Mobile Messaging platform.

This move leaves Nokia Intellisync with a 12-18 month window to be the only integrated DM solution in the market which can be natively bundled with optimized devices, but also supports a broad range of handset and messaging platforms.

In the longer term this move drives the Good messaging platform further into Symbol which will result in more of a channel focus for go-to-market, increased diversity of handset support for product roadmap (especially more ruggedized and other form-factor devices), and stronger competition of bundled offers within specific verticals such as health care and logistics.

For Good solution sellers VARs will benefit from this, while operator teams will suffer.

Bloomberg coverage

Local coverage in Chicago Tribune

MOT, RIMM sue

p>Talks between Motorola and RIM over patents and royalties broke down leading Motorola to sue and RIM to countersue.

From the AP: "Research in Motion also says in a court filing, dated Saturday, that Motorola is violating nine RIM patents and is breaching a 2003 agreement by refusing to negotiate reasonable terms for an extension beyond January 2008. The Canadian company's filing came one day after Motorola filed a suit against RIM, claiming it violated some of Motorola's patents."

This suit may indicate that the struggle of Motorola's Q against Samsung's Blackjack and RIM devices is preventing Motorola from leveraging its acquisition of Good.

Both companies chose courts in Texas which are noted for siding in favor of patent owners and therefore regarded by some as being home to "patent troll" suits, such as the NTP and recent Visto case against SEVEN.

Given RIM's history of litigating in favor of negotiating, and Motorola's desperate position in the smartphone sector, the odds of a quick settlement appear low.

Thoughts On a MOT Breakup

Who wins? Microsoft.

MOT confirmed earlier rumours today that it is considering yielding to activitist investor Carl Icahn’s suggestion that the company be broken up. While this may well yield short term financial gain for investors (and thus “increase shareholder value”), from a long-term strategic perspective it does not make sense other than as surrender.

What affects should we anticipate if MOT does break up?

One thing that leaps to mind is that Good, the best client and user experience on the market for mobile email, is effectively killed due to the timing of its acquisition. Good will most likely be used as a better UI/front end for Symbol’s offering but as a true competitor to RIM and Microsoft it’s game over. This benefits Microsoft the most. Consumers and end users will not have a better example to compare with WM6 and native Exchange Direct Push and will therefore not know how inferior that solution is at combining email and calendaring functions.

Symbol, on the other hand, was acquired earlier, placed better organizationally, and had a stonger management team. They are the main driver of success right now within MOT and the success is quite substantial. MOT’s progress in enterprise mobility has been largely overlooked but is worth investigation.

In the last earnings call MOT pointed out that Symbol  “sales increased to over $640 million, up 11% compared to the third quarter. Sales from Symbol on a standalone basis grew again in the double digit range year-over-year. Overall, Enterprise Mobility operating margin improved sequentially.” This is after two very strong quarters and came amidst heavy slumps in consumer spending at Symbol’s customers.

We should remember that after a dismal retail showing, housing market slump, and manufacturing slowdown Symbol showed strong gains despite being present in sectors that were hard hit: “In North America, Symbol sales higher year-on-year, as we continue to see strength in retail, transportation, logistics and other verticals. Europe had strong double digit year over year operating performance as well, driven by retail and field mobility and healthcare.”

Symoble is also succeeding broadly not just in the US. “The Americas accounted for approximately 60% of sales in the quarter, while EMEA and Asia-Pac represented approximately 30% and 10% respectively. Asia-Pac also saw double digit year-on-year growth.”

With all the troubles MOT is having this business unit is the sliver lining.” For Enterprise Mobility Solutions, we expect slightly higher year-on-year sales and double-digit operating margin.”

If MOT breaks up this business unit will surely become a valued takeover target. With RIM turning increasingly to consumer markets, MOT’s Enterprise Mobility has the opportunity to own the deep verticalization of enterprise mobility while RIM owns the broad shallow top of mobile email with one or two apps. I expect this to be the most likely market outcome.

Given this is the case it becomes very interesting to consider what impact an acquisition would have if it came from Cisco, HTC, or perhaps even a current non-mobility player. This also may open the possibility of combining MOT’s Enterprise Mobility with Sprint and reviving the Nextel brand to create a true end-to-end enterprise mobility service provider. While not very likely such a combination would radically raise the bar for the requirements of other operators, VARs, and channel partners in how they sell to and service businesses.

However the more realistic and immediate affect will be businesses’ continued reliance upon a traditional three-tiered channel. Once again, Microsoft stands the most to gain from this intertia as it gets the catch-up time it needs to make SC MDM a real offer, expand its Exchange 2007 footprint, and better integrate mobility into its UC roadmap.

RIM tilts consumer, MOT Good goes deeper into enterprise

A post today on SeekingAlpha noted that RIM seems to be selling very strongly through operator retail stores this holiday season. If the survey store sample was accurate they are also selling a relatively high (for RIM) proportion of devices without data plans. These must be Pearls and indicate better consumer success than most of the media commentary grants RIM.

If the projections in this article are correct, the percent of Blackberries going to new subscribers (as opposed to customers which can include new Blackberry owners with no data plan) will have dropped to an all-time low of 43%--half of what it was as recently as June 2006.

The article reminded me of MOT's last earnings call where comments from the management team made it clear that Good is being sucked into the tailwind of Symbol's success. For instance, they will begin supporting ruggedized devices to integrate email to field force applications. This focus is far more industry vertical strategy than Good had with it's operator channel focus. It will be interesting to see what it means for the product roadmap (more DM, less client whiz-bang?).

In general email as a standalone application seems to be fading in importance in the sense that on the consumer side people are buying devices with an emphasis on device + software integration, while on the enterprise side email is increasingly an embedded feature on extending applications and/or services to mobile workers.

If this is true, look for RIM and Apple to accelerate while white label application vendors stall.

Good and Visto both announce new versions

Motorola Good and Visto both announced new product versions this week.

Good has been late coming to market due to conflicts getting certification on WM6 Treos. Visto's updgrade is scheduled for Q4. These products both focus on improving user experience in client and administrative capabilities.

Visto's new release is migrating the solution to be more of a direct competitor to RIM and makes an important step in adding "in the cloud" backup and management features. This release stengthens its integration with ISP email services while adding web PIM access, backup and management features for end users.

Key new features:

Advanced Easy Setup: End-to-end self provisioning with pre-installed clients, enabling mobile email users to set up their service from their device in a matter of seconds and “Walk Out Working” (WOW).

iPortal: A new web-based repository of contacts and calendar entries that can be accessed from anywhere at anytime. The iPortal synchronizes directly with the iDAC and allows users to transfer Microsoft and Microsoft Outlook Express contacts and calendar items from one device to another or access this information on two devices concurrently.

iDAC: A desktop-based software that allows complete synchronization of MS Outlook/Outlook Express calendar and contacts between a desktop PC and the iPortal.

Smart Notifications: Intuitive messages automatically sent to the email inbox to inform users about service status, software updates and roaming.

Good has bundled their Device Management and Email servers into one and focused on improving the client PIM experience. This is the most substantial upgrade to Good’s solution in years. In general, Good continues to focus on extending Outlook functionality to mobile devices. Good is going to struggle with this “straddling” position by being an “almost” solution for device choice, platform breadth, and beyond email roadmap--on any one dimension you can find a best of breed (RIM BES, Sybase Afaria, Intellisync) and the feature parity is too close to anchor positioning on UI. 

For extending Exchange mobility Good is an expensive corner-office solution to offer a slightly better UI to basically the same limited handsets that Microsoft supports. It’s essentially a much more expensive version of Direct Push/WM6 with extra license costs.

For extending Lotus Notes mobility, Domino support lags once again with key features Exchange-only.

For “beyond email”, Good has no UC roadmap and a completely distinct server solution for intranet capabilities that is clunky and expensive.

Good does have a strong advantage in its slick client and clean server-side UI. They should focus on optimizing around a small device set to leverage their new parent and create a clear leadership area to focus on. 

Motorola's rough ride continues; re-orgs again

Motorola continues to struggle with no end in sight. After dropping enough market share to allow Samsung to pass it in market share, and RIM to pass it in market valuation (!), Motorola announced today it will again reorganize.

Good Technologies will now move to Enterprise Solutions. It was in Networks but reporting in to Devices and has struggled to find a home within Motorola as the Device Unit bled key executives and managers. It will report in to a former Symbol executive; it will be interesting to see how Good can move out from under the shadow of Symbol which is not only orders of magnitude larger but still may well be surpassing Good in growth.

The latest re-org will focus business units on customer segments. Ironically, the new business units and structure sound exactly the same as Nokia's current structure which it just announced it would ditch to refocus on internet and services.