Today we'd like to highlight a couple of announcements from trade shows last week that caught our attention. The first comes from Ericsson at IBC 2008; the company is extending its TV offering with what it claims to be the world's first IMS-integrated IPTV middleware. The second announcement made at CTIA comes from Nokia, which released plans to expand the number of Nokia devices that can support Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.

The new Ericsson IPTV solution that includes IMS-integrated middleware is, according to the company’s statement, “designed to drive the future of converged and blended communications and entertainment services.”

Our observation on Ericsson’s news: Although details are not disclosed in the announcement about how the IPTV middleware is integrated with the existing Ericsson IMS portfolio, we think the fact that a top-tier infrastructure supplier like Ericsson is incorporating a consumer-centric application like IPTV within an IMS infrastructure is significant because carriers are grappling with what money-making applications will actually drive a shift to IMS. To date, it seems that most IMS deployments are focused on SIP-based VoIP or a few limited mobile applications. To advance IMS as a long-term session control solution, we believe that every application which creates revenue will contribute to the carriers’ IMS business case and thereby hasten IMS deployments. IPTV is certainly one such carrier revenue opportunity, and with IMS-based IPTV middleware it becomes easier for carriers to integrate other consumer and business voice and data applications on a common infrastructure.

The second announcement from Nokia said that 43 Nokia devices will now feature the “Mail for Exchange” mobile e-mail application, which, according to the company, makes “Nokia’s device range the largest ever to enable the solution chosen by more businesses than any other messaging solution.” The company also announced that Mail for Exchange will be pre-installed in future releases of Nokia ESeries. Some 80 million Nokia mobile phone users will be able to connect their e-mail accounts to a Microsoft Exchange Server.

Our observations on Nokia’s news: While we encourage vertical enterprise mobility applications, it remains clear that mobile e-mail is at the top of the mobility list as a horizontal mobile application in the enterprise. And with 80 million mail-capable devices from Nokia alone, at least nobody can say their handset choices are a limiting factor to send and receive corporate e-mails.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.