Salesforce.com offers free "Lite" mobile application

BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhuanet) --

Salesforce.com--business software maker-- Tuesday launched a mobile application

that its existing customers will be able to gain access for free.

The company that pioneered software as a service --

managing customers' information and data remotely on a pay-as-you-go basis --

said it could reach 1 million users with its new Mobile Lite service.

Salesforce.com Mobile Lite is not as full-featured as

the on-demand CRM (customer relationship management) vendor's full-fledged

mobile application, which is included with an Unlimited subscription but costs

an extra $50 per user per month for Professional and Enterprise edition

subscribers.

Salesforce already has clocked up 70,000 downloads of

its Apple iPhone version in seven months by customers on its more expensive,

all-inclusive packages.

Mobile Lite will be available to customers using

Research in Motion's BlackBerry smartphones and phones running on Microsoft's

Windows software as well as the iPhone, Salesforce said ahead of a company event

in London Tuesday.

"The plan is to make it free. There is no plan to

change it," Salesforce Chief Marketing Officer Kendall Collins told Reuters in a

telephone interview.

(Agencies)