Funambol launches open source wireless sync for iPhone

If MobileMe doesn’t float your boat for your iPhone sync needs, don’t worry. Funambol are on the case, big time. Funambol provides open source push email, contacts & calendars for everyone — on a huge range of handsets. Take a look at their new service for iPhone — I encourage you to do so. Fabrizio, the CEO, is a real mobile fan (read his SMS Text News – My Mobile Day feature) and I’m confident he’ll be steering the execution correctly. I’ll get hold on an iPhone and try this out shortly. You don’t need an iPhone to use Funambol’s sync services though — do check them out with your existing handset as well.

Funambol Inc., the leading provider of Mobile 2.0 messaging software powered by open source, today announced it has enhanced its native open source wireless sync app for iPhone 2.0. The app uses the new iPhone 2.0 SDK and enables users to wirelessly sync PIM data with a wide variety of consumer and enterprise email systems and clients.

The free open source software will be available when iPhone 2.0 ships and the App Store opens, scheduled for July. iPhone users will be able to access the sync software via the free myFUNAMBOL portal. In contrast to MobileMe announced yesterday, myFUNAMBOL provides free syncing of PIM data and mobile email for mass market users. When the new Funambol iPhone open source software ships in July, it will initially sync contacts, followed by a version that also syncs calendars and notes.

“iPhone 2.0’s faster connectivity and new capabilities will appeal to many users. One of the first things they will want is to access their contacts, wherever they are stored,” said Fabrizio Capobianco, Funambol CEO. “However, many users do not want to pay or plug-in to access their contacts and calendars, they want them for free via wireless sync. That’s why our original iPhone open source app was downloaded more than 100,000 times. Now that our software works with all new iPhones, users can wirelessly access their contacts and soon other PIM data, for free.”