We have covered whole lot of push email services for your mobile in the past and the latest to join the run is a Bangalore based startup, BlacMail.
BlacMail lets you connect to the popular email clients – Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail as well as your company account.
The product is also integrated with social networks like Orkut, Twitter and Facebook and job alerts from Naukri and Monster.
Push Email Service Blacmail
BlacMail has been launched through the mobile retail channel by UniverCell and Sangeetha Mobiles. The pricing for BlacMail service starts at just Rs. 49, a fraction of the cost of alternatives such as the BlackBerry service available only for high-end “smart” phones with GPRS data plans.
Unlike several other push mail services, BlacMail has also worked on distribution channel – i.e. partnership with mobile retail outlets – makes it an interesting company to watch out for.
Do give the service a spin and share your feedback.
Few other push mail services: EmailAtMobile, SMSMyEmail (Receive emails w/o GPRS connection), MeOnGo, Mobee, Goolel
It would be interesting to see the power usage of such apps. I tried a few such apps on my E63 and they were really heavy on Battery.
This problem (of rapid battery draining) for a email app is prevalent in antiquated email services that are essentially “pull mail” solutions (as in most Nokia smartphones such as the E63). Instead of a true sever side ‘push mail’ solution such as the BlacBerry or the recently introduced BlacMail, the generic mail solutions wake up the phone on schedule (say, every 5 mins), use GPRS to poll the email servers (gmail, etc.) for any new unread mail, pull them if available and close the application. Given that most of the time there is really no mail on the email server, the effort is wasted and ends up draining battery charge as well as data fees for GPRS – not quite a “smart” solution.
The true server side solutions such as BlacMail and the BlacBerry, poll the users email accounts from their servers, fetch unread mail and only push to the mobile handset if necessary. As a result, BlacMail works well even on inexpensive mobile handsets with little impact on battery charge. Hope that clarifies this distinction.
There is a delhi based startup Jaamun.in (Indian for Blackberry) which is providing email through SMS. Perhaps that may be listed as a competitor as well.
There are several companies offering an email-over-SMS solutions – some mentioned in this article. They suffer from one widely acknowledged and serious shortcoming: user interface and usability. Mails are chopped into multiple SMS’s and sent to the SMS InBox where they co-mingle with other SMS’s (possibly interspersed in between one email). Given this, even a simple mail function such as reading an email, is cumbersome. Other functions such as reply, compose, changing a password, etc. are equally painful to execute. These are competitors to true pushmail clients such as BlacMail or the BlackBerry analogous to how connecting headphones to a hard disk is distinctive from listening to music on the iPOD.
well same here tried with applications on my E 65 and were heavy on battery……..
Vaibhav, see my comments to Yusuf’s mail above.
I didn’t get it. How does it work if not using GPRS? Is it an Email to SMS service?
It uses SMS as a bearer given that GPRS connectivity is either expensive or poor in most parts of India. In that sense it is more dependable given the poor data connectivity infrastructure in India. But the comparisons end there – it is very distinctive from generic email-over-SMS solutions that primarily chop emails and send it by SMS chunks to the SMS InBox thus compromising usability. BlacMail has a full-fledged email client- like the BlackBerry – except that it works on most popular (and inexpensive) phones as well as ‘smart’ phones thus crashing the cost of ownership for a true push mail service that does not compromise on usability. Standard email functions you would expect -such as an email InBox, Sent Box, Account Types, etc. are supported as are setting up filters such as a ‘Whitelist’ on the phone.
But how do I install it? Does it need GPRS to install? I am sure it wouldn’t work with either of my phones, an iPhone and a basic LG CDMA.
Will it work on my wife’s motorokr?
I must say that while the concept is great, your website doesn’t provide good enough information to make me understand what is going on. You need a better “How it works” section, including which phones it works on, how it installs etc.
Another point I would like to put forward to, since the USP of the service is the middle tier – using SMS to push data – the end tier i.e. the client software should be universal and simple. The client should be available on every device, and the API should be open so that anyone can create a client for his/her own device, while you should be focussing on getting the middle tier right.
BlacMail can be installed OTA to the phone on GPRS download. Most operator SIM settings come with default GPRS settings enabled and a zero rental plan – you do not to subscribe to GPRS. You will incur download charges based on the plan but it should be minimal. You can also download via Internet and transfer it via Bluetooth or cables from your PC to phone. Or get it from a mobile retailer (currently UniverCell in South Indian metros). Stay tuned for the service offering through mobile operators.
BlacMail is currently available only for GSM phones and services. It is designed to work with phones with Java MIDP2.0 support – should cover most popular volume phones sold in the market in the last 2 years or so. While we are continuously testing phone models for compatibility, the models you mention have not been tested yet. Pls check http://blacmail.in/htm/download.php for current list.
We appreciate your comments on the website and will take it into consideration as it evolves. Regarding a universal client for pushmail across all phones, given the proliferation of mobile phones based on several standards, it is an ideal that is hard to realize. Pls. remember that the big ones have not cracked it – BlackBerry only works on its phones, Nokia’s mail client works only on its phones, Windows Mobile mail only on supported models, etc. We have taken the realistic approach of being phone manufacturer agnostic and designing the software and service to work on high volume popular models sold in India that should cover the mass market.
Nice! I’ve tried using other client-less mobile email apps- tata docomo’s for example..was a complete mess- took me ages to figure out the codes etc and still didnt work after that!!
Anyway BlacMail sounds pretty neat- will def check it out!
m sure u wud stuti… coz i tried it out n i was amazed with d features it has n dat too at such a low cost.. n its pretty easy to use… no complications n fast…
Guyz, for someone who cant afford the high expense and maintenance of a Blacberry as my company does not pay for it
this is a killer app that runs very well on my basic Nokia phone. I’ve shared it with my buddies who are equally happy with the user experience and affordability of the service. I hope BlacMail will also be available through my mobile operator soon!
Pretty interesting alternative to Blackberry.
How does one install BlacMail on phone? I believe you would need to connect phone to PC (via Bluetooth or Data Cable). Not sure that is convenient for the end user.
hey amit… its nt dat complicated…go to http://www.blacmail.in/#.. type in ur phone no… u get a gprs link n ur cell… jus click on d link n u’ll get blacmail n ur cell in anothr 5 mins…
So the BlacMail guys get my passwords? I hope they don’t blackmail me with it