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During the three weeks of the year when the NHL is not actually in season, news is generally pretty slow out of Canada. But this week is different.
ViAir, a member of the Unstrung 25, and a provider of mobile applications and platforms for wireless carriers, announced that Canadian wireless carrier, TELUS Mobility, will deploy ViAir’s WirelessInbox messaging application. Using WirelessInbox Enterprise, TELUS Mobility will provide its subscribers with immediate access to Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes using any Web-enabled phone or device.
This is the second major carrier deal announced by ViAir in recent months, and the company claims to have three more in the pipeline. ViaAir’s success is largely based on a simple strategy of building user interest in mobile applications through email—the same app that sparked the web revolution (though nobody calls it that anymore).
The bottom line is that too many carriers and too many PR people hyped the heck out of m-commerce, streaming video, and things like mobile clown delivery service. But in 1996, web users weren’t ready for what Amazon or eBay had to offer them before they were sufficiently hooked on their email accounts. The same will be true for mobile. Get consumers hooked on accessing their info (the info they already use—don’t make them create a new account), and then in a couple of years we can start selling them things, once they are actually trained to use and dependent on mobile data. The industry’s strategy thus far has been the equivalent of offering the survivor castaways a gourmet meal on the 29th day. Sure looks good, but it’s too much and doesn’t end up treating you right in the end, so to speak.
From an economic standpoint, ViAir and TELUS are appealing to cash-strapped companies who have mobile directives but no true mobile plan. They’re giving Office Inbox users direct access to information behind the company firewall without having to invest in expensive devices or an onsite mobile applications server.
The company is expanding to Europe and hopes to ink a European carrier by the end of this quarter.
More from Josh Newman: Doesn’t Ad Up
Josh Newman is editor of Unstrung and is remaining consistent with his strategy.
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