I love technology. Or rather, I love it when technology has been refined into a user-friendly product which can do some really cool stuff and make life easier.
A company called Synchronica fits into this bracket very neatly and is offering a free trial for its latest gizmo (something else I like). The Tunbridge Wells-based company has a cracking email/mobile synchronisation tool which can be located online. It is something which I can recommend (I'm using it) and I imagine it would be handy for entrepreneurs who don’t own a BlackBerry or Smartphone.
After a converstion with the company’s enthusiastic CEO, Carsten Brinkschutlte, I visited www.synchronica.com and hooked up my Sony Ericsson W880i. It didn’t take long. I just filled in a few fields online (email, password and exchange address) and I was away. It took more time to join Facebook. Minutes later and I had uploaded all my new emails on to my phone and while each one takes a few seconds to open it worked fine. The emails were easy to read, all the vital info was there and I didn’t need to download any software or alter the company’s firewalls.
Synchronica, an AIM-listed company previously known as the DAT Group, is selling licences of this technology to mobile operators. Therefore, it is not clear how much all this will cost when it comes to market. Although one expects operators to keep costs low in order to capture as many users as possible.
Brinkschulte says that it is the emerging markets, such as the Middle East, Africa and South America, where PC penetration is lower, to be the most enthusiastic consumers. But businesses here and in the US are likely to be users. One big reason is that the much hyped iPhone is apparently not fully synchronising with Microsoft Outlook, according to many bloggers. This might explain why Synchronica sent out “one press release, and got 6,000 users”. Classic entrepreneur stuff: find a problem and create a solution.