Momail nominated for German Innovation Award

It's been a great start to 2009 for Momail, and things continue to look up! The company has just been nominated in the Mobile Category of the Innovationspreis-IT 2009, to be awarded 5 March at CeBIT.

The Innovationspreis-IT falls under the umbrella of the German Ministry for Business and Technology (Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Technologie), which seeks products, services and solutions in the area of Information Technology which are especially innovative and useful for the middle class.

Needless to say, we're quite proud of this recognition! The Jury clearly understands the value Momail's unique mobile email platform provides for its customers, with its ease of use and data optimization. These features enable the service to work on almost any consumer handset and minimize mobile data costs - points of increasing importance during these days of economic uncertainty.

Why Momail is not on the iPhone App Store

While in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress last week, I was often asked if Momail was on the iPhone App Store. As Momail works quite well on the iPhone, one might think it would be a natural fit. However, the answer is no. The reasons for this include:

- Momail is not an application, it works off the native email platform present within most handsets, including the iPhone. Therefore, to use Momail, you just go to Mail -> Settings -> Add Account -> Other, and follow the directions here.

- Momail works better than Apple's native email application. Not only does Momail optimize email to minimize the amount of data used, but we handle more types of attachments, everything from graphics to vcs files, as well as "collect" multiple webmail accounts into one.

So, to borrow Apple's own tagline, "Think Different", and try Momail on your iPhone. Check it out at www.momail.com, and tell us what you think!

ShareThis: Email is still king

According to both stats from August 2008, as well as the most recent ShareThis stats, email still leads the pack in terms of sharing "platforms". Eg, in January 2009, ShareThis users spread the word via email 57% of the time, more than double that for Facebook at 21%. Considering ShareThis is a very "Web 2.0" application, it's enlightening to see that email how prevalent email remains (even though more than a few people continue to claim it is dying).

FT: Moving beyond just messaging

As the Financial Times points out in their article, "Enterprises have moved beyond messaging", companies such as RIM, Nokia, and others are moving beyond just messaging and recognizing that customers are using their handsets for more than just calls and SMS. In addition, being tied to one system isn't important either, but, according to Roger Grönberg, Momail's founder, "It's the quality of the service that will determine whether people use mobile e-mail, not whether I lock out my competitors".

Thoughts on Mobile World Congress 2009

In reviewing the announcements and activities of this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, I have to say the event was much more optimistic than one may expect given the current economic environment. Though Monday and Thursday seemed slower than previous years, the usual buzz was present during the core of the conference, ie, Tuesday and Wednesday. Reasons for this positive vibe included not only continuing growth in the mobile sector, but also the recognition that handset manufacturers and portals were finally listening to their customers and therefore making their products both easier to use, as well as incorporating functionality popular today, such as social networks, rather than features which are still a long way from becoming mainstream, i.e. mobile TV.

As evidence of continuing growth in the sector, messaging and mobile advertising are clearly two bright spots. Messaging (incl. SMS, IM, and email) seems to only be expanding. Not only have the handset manufactures made more smartphones and email-capable handsets, but the tight integration of social networks within phones, portals and applications, will maintain a healthy increase of this communication medium. (MMS is the exception here, as wider use of mobile email, which can send large photos, and photo upload/download applications, enable customers to manage mobile photos much easier, and at a lower cost, than MMS).

Though it will still be a few more years before mobile advertising truly becomes mainstream, optimism in this area continues apace. The greater landscape for serving ads can be seen as both positive and negative. I.e., the larger number of spots leads to lower CPMs; however, more mainstream companies are trying mobile advertising (in the form of banners in applications and mobile internet sites, SMS, mobile email, etc.) and new technology is also enabling the advertising to become more relevant to the users. True, some companies in this space are either struggling or closing, but others are quickly filling their vacant spots with improved technology and marketing prowess.

This ability to better target advertising ties closely to the tighter integration of the social networks. The more operators, portals and services know about their customers, the more relevant ads they can serve to them, and the greater positive impact on revenues for all along the value chain. Thus the reason handset manufacturers such as INQ and Palm, and portals such as Yahoo! have created such excitement here this year. New products and designs are making it easier than ever for their homepages/entry pages to become not only the gateway, but also the central communication hub, while simultaneously enabling these companies to learn more about their customers mobile habits.

In summary, while it is obvious the mobile sector as a whole will not continue to see the growth of previous years, there is also clearly enough excitement and innovation in this space to maintain the momentum to both solve the known (and unknown) issues. Needless to say, it is refreshing to see companies finally begin listening more and more to customer demands and preferences related to their use of the mobile phone, while at the same time strengthening their own bottom lines.

Save money with Momail and JAJAH

Upload to Flickr with Momail - quick and easy!

Use Momail on the G1 Android Phone

In reviewing user forums, it appears some consumers are having problems accessing their non-Gmail accounts on their G1's. With Momail, the solution is simple. Just sign up via the Momail site, and then follow the directions below (it's easlier than it looks!):

1. From the phone's Home Screen, tap the Application Button.

2. Tap the Email icon

3. If this is your first account, you will be presented with a email setup screen. Skip this and press Menu button, and tap the Add Account button.

4. In the “Type your account email address” box, enter your full email address, number@momail.xx (xx = country domain)

5. On the other row, enter your password.

6. Tap the “Manual setup” button.

7. Tap the “IMAP account” button

8. Enter the following information
• Username: number@momail.xx
• Password: Your password
• IMAP server: imap.momail.xx
• Port: 143
• Secure type: Off

9. Tap the Next button. The device will connect to the internet, so check your incoming settings.

10. On the “Outgoing Server settings” screen, enter the following information in the spaces provided:
• SMTP server: smtp.momail.xx
• Port: 2525
• Security type: None

11. Tap the “Require sign-in” checkbox

12. In the Username box, enter number@momail.xx

13. Enter your password were it says password

14. Tap the Next button. The device will connect to the internet and check your outgoing settings.

15. On the “Account Options” screen, select your “Email checking frequency,”

16. Tap the “Notify me when email arrives” checkbox to see an alert on the status bar when you have a new email.

17. Name your account

18. Enter your name as you want it displayed in email.

19. Now you are ready to retrieve optimized emails from your Momail account!

Make your phone a smartphone

A recent article in Forbes, Smarter than a Smartphone, gave some great suggestions for making your phone "smarter". Recommendations included using VoIP services, photo and blog upload services, etc.

However, they forgot one of the key features of smartphones, i.e., email. And, by "upgrading" your basic phone to a smartphone with Momail, you can not only get your emails while on the go, but also upload and download photos with Flickr and make VoIP calls with Jajah. In addition, updating blogs is simple with basic email upload services. More information can be found under "My Services" in your Momail account.

Visit Momail at the Mobile World Congress

Momail will be making a break for the sun, and will be attending the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from 16-19 February 2009.

If you are in town, we'd love to meet and discuss:

* Possible business opportunities and partnerships
* Latest news about Momail, and more on our views on mobile messaging and mobile content distribution now and in the future
* Your feedback and suggestions about the Momail product

Please contact us if you'd like to schedule a meeting: busdev@momail.com.

Momail attendees at MWC in Barcelona are:

Kenneth Lundin, CEO
Roger Grönberg, Founder/Chief Software Architect
Lennart Strandberg, VP Global Sales
Honour Pearson, VP Business Development
Lars Aase, VP Marketing (PR & AR contact)

Hope to see you there!

Top 10 Handsets of Momail Users

During the January 2009, the preferred handsets of Momail users were:

1. Apple iPhone
2. Nokia N95
3. Nokia E71
4. SonyEricsson K800i
5. Nokia 6300
6. LG KU990 Viewty
7. Samsung F480
8. SonyEricsson C905
9. SonyEricsson C902
10. Nokia 6500 Slide

iPhone continues to lead the pack, as it has for the last number of months. According to our users, Momail is preferred over Apple's own email application due to the ease and ability to handle Hotmail and attachments. SonyEricsson's C905 is new to the list - having just been released late last year. As shown by this list, even owners of "media" handsets are interested in having email easily on their phones.

Momail - top 20 mobile and PDA application

Great news! Momail has received more recognition - and has been listed in a top 20 list of mobile and PDA applications in the UK!