Joining other email hosts like MailStreet (mailstreet.com) that offer support for BlackBerry, PacHosting announced late last week that it is the latest entrant into the market.

In March, Microsoft (microsoft.com) announced that plans were underway for Microsoft hosted Exchange and SharePoint services scheduled for launch in October. While some hosts were startled by Microsoft's active and direct stance, in what could be viewed as placing themselves in direct competition, Microsoft and some of its partners told theWHIR that the Microsoft-hosted offering would be harmless to other hosts.

Partners have even shown optimism that the publicity created from Microsoft's added interest in the SaaS-delivered model will bring about positive spillover for the entire industry.

Hosted email, especially on the versatile BlackBerry, gives users the benefit of secure, wireless access to business email, synchronized wireless calendar, contacts, mail folders and tasks.

Marketing manager for hosted solutions Michael van Dijken said Microsoft's Online Services are generally targeted at value-added resellers or systems integrators. He said applications differ from the partner-hosted solutions from Intermedia or groupSPARK, companies which provide hosted, or private label versions of Exchange or SharePoint and other similar applications.