No More BlackBerry Connect Updates For Eseries

No More BlackBerry Connect Updates For Eseries

Bad news for you business folks that like to continue your Crackberry addiction while rocking a Nokia Eseries handset – the two have ended the collaboration, meaning that new Eseries such as the E71, E66, and beyond will not be receiving a working BlackBerry Connect application. There are still numerous options for receiving push (or rather, near-push) email on your S60-powered smartphone, though.

I do love the line from Nokia’s Simon Ainslie, “RIM are a competitor and have done a reasonable job in a space that is traditionally ours, so it’s no great surprise that we see this as an opportunity to give consumers a proper choice on what email solution they want.

So basically, you’re welcome for the peek we gave you at ‘our’ market, but now we’re going to try to make you look like a fool. Given the BlackBerry’s popularity among businesspeople and government officials, I’m anxious to see exactly how Nokia intends to regain the market that is ‘traditionally’ theirs, and by offering consumers a ‘proper’ choice.

Do you use BlackBerry Connect on your Eseries? If not, how do you get your email on your S60-powered phone? I’ve found that Gmail IMAP with the built-in messaging is sufficient for my uses, really.

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to subscribe to Symbian-Guru.com's RSS feed to stay up to date on future articles.

29 Responses to “No More BlackBerry Connect Updates For Eseries”

  1. Yeah I reported this too a few days ago. This is just horrible for Nokia fans that need corporate email. Nokia really better get the ball rolling on their new Email application.

    I already have a few buddies who were gonna get the E71 but can’t now because their companies only use BB Connect.

    Do you know anything about the plans Nokia has for their new Email application Ricky? I’ve given it a try but it’s not pushing all my Gmail through.

  2. @Mike – Yeah, for companies that only use BB Connect, it’s not great for Nokia. I honestly haven’t a clue what the plans/roadmap for the new Email App is, though I would assume they intend to grow it. Seeing as how the new Nokia chat gives you username@ovi.com, I would imagine that it might eventually offer an @ovi.com email address, but that’s pure speculation.

    I was using it for a while on my N95-3, but found that it drained the battery significantly faster than the built-in email app, and didn’t really offer me much more in terms of functionality, so I’m back to using the plain-jane email app.

  3. My company uses BBConnect and provides no other option for email sync. I blogged about this a few days ago as well, when I came across similar info on Nokia’s forums. Now that it’s confirmed, my plans for getting the E71 are on hold until I know Nokia’s “plans” for their email client, whenever/if they materialize.

  4. Same here. My company is using BB only – so there goes my hopes of buying E71 with BB Connect down the drain..

    That remark from the Nokia executive is sub-par. I am pretty sure he will hear from his own bosses and learns to not make such stupid comments anymore. Nokia is well aware that this is not “tradidionally” their space at all.

  5. Epic fail on Nokia’s part. Nokia aims to essentially change the whole corporate world with their solution, I’d like to see this happen. Good Luck!

  6. It´s possible to have push mail with “emoze”, here: http://www.emoze.com/en/get/index.asp; it works well for corporate mail.

  7. [...] Via: Symbian-guru [...]

  8. [...] (RIM), Nokia Nokia has announced that they will be discontinuing support of BlackBerry Connect services on the E-Series line of S60 [...]

  9. [...] [Source] [...]

  10. This is by far the worst decision they could make. As the current E61 user I will not be buying E71 as I really hoped. Talking about being open and stubbing like that? If the f…..g iphone will introduce BB client I will hang myself of the next AT&T antenna. EOM

  11. [...] SymbianGuru Classé sous: [...]

  12. That’s really bad news.
    I’ve used an e-series device with mail for exchange for a while and have to say it is no match at all for the BB Curve I’m using now in regard to stability and eMail usability!
    Still I was very tempted by the e71 (I love the styling and built quality) but it looks like it has to be BB Bold for me now.

  13. [...] Symbian-Guru] if (!window.netshel_ord) { netshel_ord=Math.random()*10000000000000000; } if [...]

  14. [...] In modo riassuntivo sono queste le parole di Simon Ainslie (Business unit UK Nokia), con la quale NOKIA ha liquidato la soluzione BlackBerry Connect sui nuovi device della serie “E”, soluzione che permette di implementare le caratteristiche BlackBerry su hardware non RIM. Additanto in RIM un competitor per il mercato business (e do’ a NOKIA tutte le ragioni), il colosso finlandese ha deciso di “blindare” i nuovi dispositivi E66 ed E71 alla soluzione canadese di email push, permettendo ai propri clienti di “scegliere la soluzione migliore” alle proprie esigenze. Problemi per RIM o problemi per NOKIA? [fonte Symbian-Guru] [...]

  15. [...] [Via: Symbian-Guru] [...]

  16. [...] [Via: Symbian-Guru] [...]

  17. [...] [Via: Symbian-Guru] [...]

  18. [...] source (SG) [...]

  19. [...] [Source] [...]

  20. Does this mean there will be no new releases of BB Connect for the E71, or that the current BB Connect software will not run at all on new Eseries devices?

    If the latter, Nokia made a huge mistake: Without Blackberry I as many fellow customers will not buy an E71, but use my E61 until it breaks, and then go shopping for another manufacturer’s device (BB or other). But no proprietary solution or Mail for Exchange can replace a well-working solution like BB Connect, which uses significantly! less data than Mail for Exchange.

    Let’s hope they revise their decision — otherwise, the market offers a good range of devices from other handset manufacturers, so no drama for power users like us I guess.

    Bye, FB

  21. [...] [Source] [...]

  22. I am also using GMail IMAP IDLE which is more then sufficient for me too… Especially in the private area, no friend of mine is normally responding to emails in less than 2 or 3 hours (or days?). So what does it mean, if the email arrives immediately or 2 minutes late?

  23. Is there no way that RIM could release a Blackberry add-on solution, such as an app you install on the phone yourself?

    S60 is an open platform after all, and there are a lot of S60 phones out there so it’s a big potential market for RIM.

    It’s not just Nokia that make S60, Samsung is about to release a very high spec S60 model called the INNOV8, and other companies have S60 licences too.

  24. @Krisse that’s an excellent point. While I’m not sure I foresee RIM putting something out as a download, as you said, there’s nothing holding them back from doing so.

  25. So bad… Nokia is a good company making bad decisions these days… Nokia, look where u’re heading!!! Look at all the customers u’ll miss…

  26. I think its a strategic decision on nokia’s part. you can probably look at it from this point of view. Is a solution provider (raed blackberry) can enter a phone manufacturing market and get successful why can a phone manufacturer do the vice versa. Probably the contract break up is to bring in the required urgency in development of the push mail service.

    Though I have used BB Connect on my e61i (i have got rid of both of them now, use n 82, use Seven beta and get all my mails including corporate on push) this still is a sad news for consumers who actually wanted the best of both worlds. Now its a choice!!

  27. There is no reason that enterprises should fear something like this. Many RIMed out enterprises also use Exchange. This means Nokia’s Mail for Exchange is just fine as a solution. This not only costs less to implement, with with MOSS 2008, there should be no issue with getting things up and going for users and IT admins.

  28. [...] features, such as Exchange support and a handy text-to-speech interface. BlackBerry Connect is now gone, [...]

  29. [...] few months ago, just as it was launching its beta Email service, Nokia stated that it was discontinuing support for its BlackBerry Connect client, which allows Eseries smartphones to connect to BlackBerry servers for full push email [...]