I retired from personal blogging in July 2008 but you can find me over at blog.xero.com
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When in the US I’m stunned by the adoption of Blackberry’s. Instant mobile email.
But most BlackBerry users also have a normal phone as they don’t like the BB voice features.
Almost no-one has Pocket PC phone.
I can get my emails on my Pocket PC phone when my phone goes and check for new mail, but what BB users like is that email is delivered immediately. This is often called Push. The BB requires a RIM server (pricey) and I guess that it keeps a GPRS connection with the device to alert it when a new email is available. Either that or it’s short cycle Poll & Pull to give the appearance of Push. (Most Push systems are really Poll & Pull).
I’ve been wondering why MS hadn’t directly taken on RIM. Pocket PC does have SMS notifications, but that seems expensive (someone has to pay for the SMS).
Microsoft are almost there with an IP replacement. Exchange 2003 SP2 (just out) has the server bits and an update to Windows Mobile 5 is due out early next year. I can’t understand why its taking so long as this would be so valuable to MS and Pocket PC Phone adoption. It’s also confusing why this wasn’t just in Windows Mobile 5 and is only available later.
This summary from Microsoft Watch confirms that move away from SMS as the Push Mechanism …
Microsoft is calling this push e-mail support “Direct Push.” Microsoft is playing up Direct Push as an alternative to short-message service (SMS) technology for automatic e-mail detection and retrieval. “SP2 will use an HTTP connection, maintained by the device, to push new e-mail, calendar, contact, and task notifications to the device,” according to the Microsoft Web site. Direct Push also will work over Wi-Fi networks, Microsoft officials have said, and will make use of additional data compression to speed up message sending, retrieval and synchronization.
Microsoft officials have said to expect the final versions of Exchange Server SP2 and the Mobile 5.0 Feature Pack are due to ship before the end of calendar 2005, according to the most recent information made public by Microsoft.
Comments:
1. From an MS employee
… all your email goes via a RIM server in Canada. Privacy is a big problem, single point of failure … their data center goes down and most BB customers cant get email. Whereas EAS goes directly to your exchange server so no middle man … The device/server you have to install next to your exchange box increases IO load on your exchange box by about 30% in our experience. Quite a price to pay in large Exchange environments.
2. From a Member of Parliament (oh yes, really)
I am a happy BB user now. Push, battery life, scroll wheel thing and small size won me over.
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