Nokia tries a business rebound by extending Exchange services

In attempting a quick fix for declining sales, will smartphone maker Nokia be able to tip the tables a bit against ascending rival RIM? Certainly, the potential demand for mobile Microsoft Exchange access seems to be real.

All 43 of Nokia's S60 3rd Edition devices will now feature the Mail for Exchange mobile e-mail application, Nokia announced this morning. The application will also be available out-of-the-box in future releases of Nokia Eseries and Nseries devices, Nokia said in a statement today.

What this means is, business users whose companies use Microsoft Exchange servers can set up Mail for Exchange free of charge on their cell phones, using their current data plans to access Exchange-based e-mail, calendar, contacts, tasks, and company directory services from their homes and other places outside of the office.

With today's expansion of Micorosoft Exchange ActiveSync support to a broader range of mobile devices, Nokia could be getting a sorely needed better leg up on the corporate side of the smartphone market.

The market demand for Exchange synchronization is definitely real. Microsoft Exchange currently holds about a 65% share of the business/organization e-mail market in the US, with Lotus Notes Domino in second place at 10% and RFC-822 e-mail servers such as Sendmail, Qmail, and Postfix combined accounting for 15%, according to a recent survey by analyst firm Ferris Research.

In the global business e-mail market, Microsoft Exchange is the leader, too, but with a market share of only 37%, according to an estimate by Sarah Radicati, CEO of The Radicati Group.

While Nokia is still the global market share leader overall, with a 47.5% share -- according to figures released by Gartner this week -- this number is down from a 50.8% share a year ago. Meanwhile, BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion has been growing beyond its core business market to make new headway in sales to consumers, as witnessed by its impending introduction in the next few days of its first clamshell phone.

Meanwhile, Nokia has been focusing on leaping past manufacturing to become more of an "Internet company," by offering new Internet-based services in areas such as music downloads and photo and video sharing.