Synchronica has announced plans to acquire AxisMobile, a firm specialising in mobile email for entry-level phones.

The move is intended to drive greater take-up of push email by enabling Synchronica to support a broad array of handsets, from high-end smartphones down to the most basic of devices.

Synchronica has its own Mobile Gateway server based on open standards such as SyncML and Push Imap.

But AxisMobile's platform provides the ability to deliver email as either SMS or MMS, and to enable users of basic phones to view attached document files.

Synchronica claims that it intends to integrate these capabilities into a future version of Mobile Gateway, which will enable carriers and other service providers to offer customers push email on virtually any handset.

"We have already started the planning for an integrated product, and we aim to have this available as soon as possible," said Synchronica chief executive Carsten Brinkschulte.

He added that the firm hopes to deliver this before the end of this year, but warned that there is "no guarantee" that it will meet the timeframe.

The acquisition is still subject to shareholder approval, but Brinkschulte sees no reason why it would not go through.

"From a product perspective, this acquisition will propel the company forward," he said.

While Mobile Gateway is good for the kind of devices used in the business and mobile professional sector, AxisMobile's platform provides support for a much broader range of devices.

As well as being able to deliver email as either an MMS or SMS text message, AxisMobile's technology lets users view attachments by converting them to a format that can be displayed on the target handset.

Word files are typically converted to text, while a PDF file might be rendered as an image sent as MMS, according to Brinkschulte.

"A combined product will allow us to address any device, from smartphones all the way down to rock-bottom devices. We believe no competitor will be able to match that," he said.