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Full-Featured Eudora Now Free

Qualcomm offers beta of its full-featured e-mail client for the price of a banner ad.

By Tom Spring, PCWorld   

Starting Thursday, Qualcomm will let you download a beta edition of a full-featured version of its Eudora e-mail client free of charge. The only difference from the $50 retail version of Eudora Pro is a large ad in the lower left-hand corner of the application window.

Accepting that ad is your cost for the entire Eudora suite, including inline spell-checking, advanced filtering options, and 17 other new features. If you choose to hide the ad, your application reverts to the functional equivalent of the freeware Eudora Light.

Qualcomm expects to ship the commercial version in the first quarter.

The move is an effort to consolidate the product line into one Eudora title, say Qualcomm representatives. Next, the company will offer one downloadable version of Eudora that operates in three user-selected modes. They include the full-featured, ad-sponsored mode; Light freeware; and paid Eudora Pro.

New: Voice, Multiuser Support

Eudora Light users will notice a significant upgrade with Eudora.

Like Eudora Pro, Eudora is head and shoulders better than the Light version. Qualcomm maintains a plug-in architecture so third-party vendors can develop add-on tools for Eudora. With those tools you can send faxes, encrypt messages, send bulk e-mail, and create greeting cards. Many of these utilities are free downloads on the Eudora home page.

The beta version of Eudora includes voice messaging and automatic name completion, as well as support for multiple user accounts. It opens with a large, square ad for a Qualcomm cellular phone. The ad changes every 30 seconds, and you can click on it to go to the advertiser's site.

Eudora runs on PCs running Windows 95, 98, or NT--and OS 7 and above for Macintosh computers. Minimum requirements are a Net-ready computer with a POP or IMAP mail connection.

However, Eudora still has a few omissions in an increasingly competitive market, notes Mark Levitt, analyst at International Data Corp.

Missing from this beta are features like telephony-based access to e-mail and tighter integration with Qualcomm's family of wireless services, Levitt says.

The Morphing Landscape of E-Mail

The move is Qualcomm's attempt to keep up with the shifting sands of the e-mail market, where clients often come free with application suites. It's extremely hard for consumers and businesses to justify paying, analysts say.

"This marks a major shift in the way we do business," says Dave Ross, Eudora senior product manager. "We are working on developing a completely new relationship with our customers." Qualcomm plans to add cell-phone access to your Eudora e-mail, instant messaging, and other services.

The banner-ad Eudora will likely cannibalize Eudora Pro sales, Ross admits. However, Qualcomm stands to gain from ad dollars by attracting an estimated 15.4 million penny-pinching users of Eudora Light. They'll be able to upgrade to Eudora Pro for the price of an ad.

Qualcomm estimates 22 million Net users run a version of Eudora. The company claims roughly 30 percent of Eudora users, or 6.6 million people, have anted up $50 dollars for the retail version.