The Blackberry and Microsoft saga is a piece of good fortune, strictly for the Pocket PC demographic.Research in Motion has been through a few dark days as outlined in my BlackBerry legal woes article a few days ago.
Eweek.com now reports that Microsoft is taking a bit more active interest in the Blackberry and its email capabilities through its actions.
Nokia is also mentioned as another WiFi competitor, but Microsoft is a bit more pertinent to PDA gamers.
If your firm uses Microsoft's Exchange Server 2003 for Outlook e-mail handling, you may be in luck.
Microsoft's salvo consisted of offering upgrades freely from early 2006 for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices to receive e-mail.
It's a marketing strategy best adopted by deep-pocketed corporations.
The Blackberry had initially been the first device to allow access through company firewalls, granting them an edge in the messaging market.
Now times have changed and Microsoft is horning in on the action, presumably netting more Pocket PC buyers and hence more gamers in the process.
A WiFi wireless migration to a Windows Mobile 5.0 PDA will be an eye-opener for former Blackberry gamers.
Direct3D Mobile, DirectDraw Mobile and DirectX Mobile should lure e-mail on the run folks and Pocket PC game fans alike.
Future sales figures will indicate how much influence Pocket PC gamers yield over mobile device purchases.
