Richard: The P910 is perhaps the obvious phone when it comes to enterprise, how important is it to Sony Ericsson's enterprise strategy?

Henrik: For us at Sony Ericsson our enterprise strategy has two streams when it comes to phones. By far the largest volume is in the feature phones, models such as the recently released K750 have proved to be very popular with enterprise users. However these models are being used primarily for voice. We have to date not seen much enterprise use of the Java capabilities of these phones, but I believe this will change as more developers become aware of the availability of JSR-75 file and PIM APIs and JSR-82 Bluetooth API. With the introduction of new Java capabilities such as JSR-172 for web services and JSR-205 for wireless messaging, in the recently announced S600 and W600 phones, we will see even more enterprise and productivity applications being developed. This is a very positive trend.

The second prong to our enterprise push is the P series and now the P910. This is certainly the device we see as fundamental to smart enterprise application. In fact the P-series is very important to us as a differentiator in the Enterprise market, with it we believe we are a leader in the Enterprise smartphone market, so while it is does not have the volume of our feature phones we are very please with both its reception in the market and the sales.

Richard: How do you see the P910 spearheading a push into enterprise?

Henrik: We are currently concentrating on the P910 as a push e-mail devices. I think the suitability of the P910 to this application has been underlined by the support we have received from the partner community, which includes all the leading push and enterprise e-mail companies.

So currently we have enable solutions from Blackberry, Ericsson Mobile Office, the Smartner/Ericsson Solution which we ship as the default in the box option with the P910, and Visto, which is used by Vodafone. Then we have Intellisync, which is the solution we use internally here at Sony Ericsson and we think is a strong secure system for large enterprises, Extended systems, which has been successful in northern Europe and has attracted a lot of operator attention including TeleSonera, JP Mobile and Seven.

We are still adding new options. For example we expect DataViz to be adding support for RoadSync following their announcement in March that they are licensing Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync protocol.

Richard: You do seem to have partnered with a large number of companies, why so many?

Henrik: Our primary strategy is to provide the solutions requested by our customers and our channels, which principally means operators. So when an operator has asked for support for a solution we do our very best to provided it.

Richard: So how successful has wireless e-mail on the P910 been?

Henrik: From our customer feedback work we know that a very high percentage of P910 users use their phone for e-mail. However at this stage much of that usage seems to be for personal internet based e-mail, though POP3 or IMAP accounts. Although we monitor uptake with our partners and channels one of the challenges with a smartphone is that once it is sold we can not be sure what e-mail solution the user is using. At the moment we don't think the volume in push email is that great, but it is growing.

Richard: Does supporting such a wide range of solution have a significant cost to Sony Ericsson, particularly in light of the take up?

Henrik: We look at each solution on a case base case basis. For most partners we work to help them enable the solution, we may do more in some cases. So we don't necessarily have a big financial invest in enabling these technologies, we provide support services and technical advice but most of the implementation cost is born by the e-mail solution partner.

One area where we are making a significant investment in mobile e-mail is in the area of standards. We take an active role to try to ensure success of Push-IMAP and SyncML-DS. This is where we are focusing our future investments, although we will continue listening to customer requests for proprietary solutions.

Richard: Does the enterprise strategy go beyond e-mail?

Henrik: It certainly does. Voice is still in many ways the main application for enterprises and we are seeing interest in the advanced services that the P910 can provide.

We also have applications to extend Ericsson's Centrix and PBX solution. The P910 offer a UI which looks like an advanced desk phone and provides access to the sort of features enterprise uses expect from their desk phone. So if you have an option to show you are at lunch, just as a modern desk phone would not require a *# style sequence to activate it, the P910 provides a menu to select "at lunch" and calls may then be diverted to voice mail. These PBX extensions also offer features like setting up a group call and telephone directories. More importantly they offer companies the ability to control their overall telecoms expenditure through one system.

In the future we also see Instant Messaging and solutions using SIP technology providing more opportunities to enhance voice services.

One other practical example is the success we have had with Vodafone and the mobile office which primarily a voice and attendant style service. It is today primarily a feature phone service that also includes hardware accessories such as a speaker phone modules that users can drop their phones into when at their desk so they get deskphone performance from their mobile. These units also allow a user to attend the phones through PC based software, which are ideal for smaller enterprises where staff roles may be flexible.

Richard: While these technologies obviously work well on the P910 its clearly capable of much more data orientated tasks, are you seeing any interest in these?

Henrik: We have certainly been seeing a significant increase in interest from enterprises in what they can do with vertical data-orientated smartphone applications, such as sales force or field force applications. In fact the interest seems to have picked up quite noticeably in the last few months. So while we have not seen too much by way of deployment of vertical solutions to date the interest suggests we will be seeing a lot more in the future.

Richard: What do you think is driving the interest now?

Henrik: Two or three years ago there was an interest in these types of application, but many of them proved to be ineffective, so some of the early adopters got burnt. Back then the promise was probably ahead of the technology, but now we have the handsets, we have the networks and it is starting to become a reality. So I think the market has seen that the technology has caught up with expectations. Its also not just an increased interest from the enterprise end but the sales channels and solutions provides are also much more mature, so the whole supply chain is in place too.

Richard: Has the increased security offered by Symbian OS 9 played any part in this upturn in interest?

Henrik: I don't believe so, certainly not yet. I don't believe the enterprise is fully aware of the improvements that are coming. For sure the improvements in security will make a difference as it's issues like security and device management that are key to driving the adoption of this technology.

More information on Enterprise solutions and applications for Sony Ericsson phones can be found on the Sony Ericsson Professional Solutions web page.

A further insight into developing applications, including those for enterprises, can be found in the keynote speech made by Gregor Bleimann at the recent Handango Partner Summit, the presentation from which can be downloaded here.