Good Technology to Upgrade Wireless-Software Platform

SAN FRANCISCO -- Good Technology Inc., in a move against rival Research in Motion Ltd. (RIMM), said it is broadening its wireless-software platform to deliver enterprise software applications to customers.

The privately held Santa Clara, Calif., company, which is backed by top venture-capital firms such as Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and Benchmark Capital, will on Monday announce that its wireless software has been upgraded to deliver enterprise applications from companies such as Oracle Corp. (ORCL) and Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) to various mobile devices. Good currently makes a wireless corporate e-mail solution that competes with one from market leader RIM, which makes the well-known Blackberry wireless e-mail devices.

Good's upgraded software platform, dubbed GoodAccess, is designed to securely bring applications from Oracle, Salesforce.com, Siebel Systems Inc. (SEBL) and others onto a broad range of mobile devices, such as those from PalmOne Inc. (PLMO) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ). Good said it also plans to bring GoodAccess onto a new class of portable gadgets: industrial and ruggedized hand-held computers such as Symbol Technologies Inc.'s (SBL) MC50, a bulkier device that is designed to be carried around on store floors and out in the field by mobile workers.

Good says it will be able to charge higher licensing fees for GoodAccess than what it currently charges for just its wireless e-mail software. The company says GoodAccess starts at $30,000 per corporate engagement, including software and services.

The unveiling of GoodAccess "shows that Good wants to be a full platform player," says Kevin Burden, an analyst at IDC, a research firm in Framingham, Mass.

Software makers say they agreed to put their applications onto Good's platform because Good's software works across multiple operating systems and devices. "Good's solution is platform independent," says Thomas Kurian, a senior vice president at Oracle. By putting Oracle's applications on GoodAccess, "we're allowing the corporate mobile customer to use the same device to access their e-mail and enterprise software."

Good, which was initially launched as a maker of MP3 modules for hand-held devices, transformed itself into a maker of wireless e-mail software two years ago. The company, with 350 employees and 4,000 customers, is far smaller than market leader RIM, but has ambitions to eventually unseat RIM as the biggest provider of corporate wireless e-mail. Good has plans to go public, and has told analysts that it expects to be profitable this year.

-By Pui-Wing Tam, The Wall Street Journal; 415-765-8238

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 24th January 2005