I'm just listening to a Webcast of RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie at the UBS Securities Global Communications Conference in New York, and wondering what he thinks about Nokia's $430 million acquisition of Intellisync Corp. The deal is being is being pitched as a way for Nokia to take on RIM in the mobile e-mail market, particularly in the corporate marketplace. Nokia licensed RIM's BB Direct software but there does appear to be a lot of momentum despite happy talk from both sides. Does Nokia's purchase of  Intellisync purchase kill the BB Direct partnership or does Nokia see it as another e-mail technology to pursue end-users? If you're into reading between the lines, check out this quote: "Enterprises face increasing challenges when it comes to selecting devices, enabling access to e-mail and securing corporate data,'' said Mary McDowell, head of Nokia's unit that makes devices for businesses. "`We want to make it simple for our business customers to mobilize their workforces." At first blush, it suggests Nokia wants more exposure to the corporate market and they want more weapons to pursue it. Still, it's an intriguing deal - and one that Om Malik likes.

Another week, another service(s) from Google. I've jumped on the Google Analytics (GAS) and Google Base (GB) bandwagons just to see what all the excitement - or lack thereof (see Tech Crunch) - is about. Of the two, Google Analytics is the more interesting. First, it's free, which is troubling news for search optimization companies as well as services such as PubSub and MeasureMap (which I haven't been able to use yet because it doesn't support Blogware). Even if you're not into search optimization or looking to maximize your AdSense efforts, GA is a fascinating set of tools to get an idea of where traffic comes from and what they do. While it has only been a couple days, I'm curious why GA's visitor statistics are so different from those provided by Blogbeat and Blogware. Google Base was less interesting if only because it's early days and I'm not quite sure about Google's end-game with this service. From a basic level, it looks like another way to improve search results by having people input whatever Web content they want. Maybe GB strives to become an online classified service to rival Craig's List or  newspapers but it is difficult to tell right now. As a test, I created an "ad" for a Lyle Lovett concert this week in Toronto. Let's see if it works!
Bottom line: GA and GB are intriguing strategically but I'm a little puzzled by their mandates other than extending the Google empire into new areas while supporting the search and AdSense initiatives. Perhaps that is the ultimate goal but, like many people, I'm looking for Google to become more ambitious. That could be buying Tivo or - as my brother suggested to me yesterday - spending $4B on Knight-Ridder to get hold of a content that can be customized for individual readers. The launch of free, cool services comes across as jabs rather than knock out blows. With $7B of cash and plenty of smart people, Google has much more strategic potential.
Another interesting element of GA and GB is the general lack of enthusiasm within the blogosphere. This is a stark contrast to the happiness with Google's search tool. Fred Wilson, for example, called out Google as "lame" because the performance of GA and GB is less-than-stellar.
(the cool graphic came from John Battelle, who succinctly describes GB as: "Google is saying this is simply a new way to augment their search results. Google's right. And that alone makes it one Very Big Deal.)