GoodLink firing a warning shot at BlackBerry

[Alexander Turcic]

The WSJ is reporting this morning that GoodLink, an alternative push e-mail service offered to corporate phone users by Cingular, poses serious challenges to Blackberry-maker RIM. Unlike RIM's solution GoodLink is not device-dependent; Cingular will begin to offer the software and service on the PalmOne Treo 650 and the Siemens SX66, and other models may follow. However, taking on BlackBerry will be no easy matter:

RIM, which was founded in 1984, has a huge lead in wireless email, enabling it to brush off upstarts that have arisen in recent years. More than 42,000 organizations have a BlackBerry email server, and 2.5 million people use the hand-held device.

Still, some analysts see holes in the BlackBerry approach, namely that its technology operates by and large on its own devices. The company has made a concerted push recently to license its technology and make it workable on other devices and operating systems, with the idea of expanding and diversifying its sources of revenue.

But those efforts have yet to produce the desired results. The company's plans to put BlackBerry technology on a Motorola Inc. phone, for example, have apparently stalled.

[Alexander Turcic]

Some follow up:

RIM's shares fell today 80 cents, or 0.96 percent. Same time Forbes is quoting S&P Equity Research saying that the GoodLink-Cingular deal is not a real threat for RIM:

The research firm said that Good Tech is "making inroads" as Research in Motion competes against palmOne and market leader Nokia but noted that "we are not concerned about wireless carriers expanding their vendor list for wireless e-mail, as we believe Research In Motion has the largest partner list among global wireless carriers, and the market penetration for e-mail devices is well below cellular. Priced above peers on price/earnings [multiple] but growing faster, we find Research in Motion attractive."