The result is that you can get a lot of the goodies that Zimbra offers in its collaboration suite, but in a highly compressed footprint. The key to making a sophisticated email client usable over a phone is through lots of shortcuts and programmable hot keys, so that hitting “#1” might mean, throw the email into your primary folder, while “#2” could mean delete or throw into archive. In actuality, the primary use case for the Java ME Zimbra client is likely to be receiving email or sending one-word responses.

Previously, Zimbra’s mobile support was primarily through high end PDAs, or through a WAP browser on web-accessible phones.

The key, however, is that the Zimbra client requires that Zimbra also be the email server. That’s where all the magic emanates from, as it does some cool things on the back end to add real workflow and superior search capabilities to email through its use of MySQL database for metadata (e.g., for the headers of the email), the Linux file system for raw storage, and Apache for the webserver (in other words, three-quarters of the LAMP stack).

In turn, it uses Ajax clients so email messages can become mashups. For instance, you could overlay dynamic links to urls or to web services providers. For instance, mousing over a meeting request could automatically generate SOAP message to query your calendar, with the answer appearing as a pop-up in your email; or a query to Google Maps, which could show where the meeting will be held. Of course, most of these bells and whistles will be beyond the humble capabilities of a Java ME phone.

So while Zimbra offers a very interesting web email client alternative to Outlook, on Java ME phones the thrill is muted. But in a few months, Zimbra will unveil a client that doesn’t require the Zimbra server, but has the capability to do similar kinds of mashups. Appealing to those whose organizations or ISPs have not subscribed to the Zimbra Collaboration Suite, this would be something to get excited about.

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