Email has grown rapidly through open Internet standards and the proliferation of laptops and personal computers.  When Canadian company RIM combined cell phone ubiquity with two-way pager simplicity in the BlackBerry, mobile email evolved from laptop connection to encompass a more portable form factor. 

The BlackBerry appeal is broad, if not yet deep, but the real value to business comes when mobile email is combined with other applications, turning BlackBerry into a mobile platform and bringing it head to head with incumbents like Microsoft.