The over-funded and over-litigated world of push mobile email is about to get an upstart free service from an entrepreneur with substantial roots in the industry. The New York Times writes about Nicholas Fodor, the founder of Coral Gables, Florida-based SetNet, which will launch a free mobile push email option called Freedom Mail, perhaps as early as next month.
Fodor tells the New York Times that his work on mobile email in the ’90s, which led to a deal with French carrier SFR, predates some of the important patents in the push email industry. He says his service will “liberate wireless e-mail,” and will use mobile ads to support the service.
If Freedom Mail really does end up causing waves for past patents, it could be a real shock to the system for companies like NTP and Visto. Visto has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and is well known for its aggressive patent suits.
There are a lot of new services that are trying to bring push email to more phones for free, like Emoze. Freedom Mail probably has a better chance of causing trouble for the larger companies like Visto, than gaining major traction in the market place.
SetNet employees a staff of 11 to work on the service, with $6 million in funding from friends and family. We haven’t tested it out yet, but plan on checking it out when its ready and adding a more indepth review.
7 comments so far
11:50 AM PT
$6 million from friends and family! he clearly doesn’t operate under the old adage “never mix friends and business”.
4:07 PM PT
Amen to that. especially when hec an get better terms (in his favor) from VCs who are looking for some place to invest in.
9:37 PM PT
While we are on this subject. Has anybody thought about taking “Pull Mail” to the next level? Yes, Push Mail is VERY convenient - but there are scores of mobile users (specially in emerging economies) that simply can’t afford the high-end devices and/or data-plans that are required. Check out http://www.meongo.com.
4:02 AM PT
I don’t get what all the fuss is about. IMAP-IDLE which implements push email has been around since 1997.
6:49 AM PT
Agree about IMAP-IDLE. Most people and media seem to be morons, accepting the desinformation from RIM and Microsoft. Set up any decent IMAP server and buy any Sony Ericsson phone above $75 or any Nokia S60 phone and you’re home. Work like charm.
//Sune, on cheap, standards push email since 2004
3:52 AM PT
Yes, agreed there are quite a few options available for mobile email - both push & pull - but they all consume good amount of wireless data.
Which is where a mobile browser-based mobile email service may have a much better appeal for users in emerging economies.
Interesting debate on Push vs. Pull at http://webworkerdaily.com/2006/10/26/mobile-email-push-vs-pull
11:29 AM PT
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