Thursday, May 24, 2007

ELN & Funambol

Big news this week. First Zimbra and Comcast team up and now EarthLink and Funambol partner.

Open source software provider Funambol has signed a deal with US Internet service provider and mobile network operator EarthLink. EarthLink will use Funambol's synchronization software to provide address book sync to its mobile phone and email customers. [source]

How is it that the Big Guys are moving now this path first? Aren't the independent ISP's the nimble ones? Aren't they the open source advocates? If so, how is it that Comcast and ELN got out in front? The sticky part of email is the address book. This is how AOL was able to keep its base for so long -- they could extract or move their inbox or address book. (That is a lesson to learn: people can move easy using POP3 email, but webmail is stickier).

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