Remote Email Devices Keep Execs Connected

You're packing for a business trip. Laptop and cell phone charged? Check. Got the modem card to connect the laptop to the cell phone to download email from the road? Check. Got the LapTop Desk (www.laptopdesk.net) stashed away, ready to pull out to create a suitable work surface to place all these items as you work with some semblance of civility? Check mate. Checking email from the road can be a losing battle. It's a reality we've all experienced - and increasingly so, as we become more mobile, and more reliant upon email. When I'm not loaded down with my own technology, the hotel business center, airport cyber lounge or even LapTopLane suite can be expensive. And who among us teleworkers and home officers have an administrative assistant to help out?

Instead, what about a remote email device like the RIM BlackBerry? This mobile email unit allows users to send and receive email via a wireless data network.

Other companies make similar products, like Motorola's TimePort, the HP Jornada and the Palm VII. But while the others are playing catch-up, RIM (for Research In Motion, BlackBerry's Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, manufacturer [www.blackberry.net]) has tightened its grip on the technology, the hardware and the market.

Depending on the model, BlackBerry includes a display screen, four or five megabytes of memory, contact list, address book and calendar, and can be synchronized to the user's desktop computer database as well. The RIM 950 ($350) is about the size of a pager. The RIM 957 ($499) is comparable to a Palm device.

Subscribers don't purchase the unit directly from RIM. Instead, the company has agreements with wireless service providers, including Earthlink, Go America, Aether and Yahoo!, which sell the hardware and a $30-or-so a month service plan. America Online users must buy their units from AOL, which has loaded its own proprietary software into the BlackBerry units it sells.

The unit's Internet connection is always on, meaning users don't have to log on to receive email or instant messages - or to send one of their own. Those of us who turn off the PC for road travel will still receive messages; transmission takes place at the primary email host, which copies and forwards messages to the BlackBerry. When an email or instant message arrives, the unit can be set to vibrate or ring. The user can open the email and respond to it using a "qwerty" keyboard of Tic-Tac-sized keys.

"For the mobile worker, it makes life possible," says Robert Mahowald, a senior research analyst with IDC in Framingham, Mass. "Otherwise, there's no easy way for them to remain as connected as they need to be."

As a connected small business owner, email is like my queen on the chessboard. She keeps me in control, and helps me win the game.

Jeff Zbar, the ChiefHomeOfficer.com, is a speaker, writer and expert on alternative officing. He is the author of Teleworking & Telecommuting: Strategies for Remote Workers and Their Managers (Made E-Z Products, 2002); Safe@Home: Seven Keys to Home Office Security (FirstPublish 2001) and Your Profitable Home Business (on CD-ROM from Made E-Z Products). Visit his Web site to subscribe to Home Office Success Stories, his free electronic magazine on home business and teleworking.