The "MacDailyNews Take"

RIM BBs are not "Microsoft incompatible."  This thing, called BES, it runs on Exchange just skippy.  It also runs on Lotus (eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwww) and Groupwise (double eeeeewwwwwww).

Sure, it is an extra bit you have to buy, but it works with Exchange just fine.

BTW: That note to CEOs is repugnant.

The thing I don't get is this idea that CEOs can simply just up and get iPhones for everybody (or just himself).  Coming from a strong background in BlackBerry and BES management, BlackBerries offer a lot more than the users see: things like enterprise class management.  If a device is stolen, I can revoke its access to everything, remotely lock it, or just take the drastic step of paving the OS down to dust.  It also offers security in spades, just tons of it.  I'm really not a fan of BBs, but I know them backwards and forwards.  The reason they're a winner is that they do (seemingly) seamless integration into corporate email, calendars, contacts, intranets (this is HUGE, btw), honest to god applications (none of this Web2.0 gibberish), and other things.  I have yet to see any of this about the iPhone.  Frankly, it sounds more like a liability to real IT concerns right now, especially since it has yet to be seen if it has anything we, the IT people, need.

And the thing is, I've seen megacorporations who get this, CTO/CEO on down.  No names, but I've seen them from the inside and I know how they think.  If the iPhone doesn't offer even a shred of what I mentioned, well, forget it.  At least, the sane ones.

blowdart wrote:



Rossj wrote: IMO though I am betting there is no solid reason these people want an iPhone for business purposes, other than it is 'cool'.

Heck Smartphones and blackberries have a business reason because of push email, and syncing to the office directory.

Does the iPhone, a *consumer* phone do either of those?

It does seem to do push email (which is absolutely essential).  From what sources, I do not know.  The bare essentials would be a desktop redirector that hooks into Outlook/MAPI, which is easy to implement but hardly enterprise class.

Sven Groot wrote:



DoomBringer wrote: It does seem to do push email (which is absolutely essential).

Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is push e-mail?

Push email is basically the email is delivered to you without you having to initiate anything.  For example, if you have to log into a webmail client, that is "pull" email, because you log in and pull the contents down.  Outlook operates in either mode, but in an Exchange environment, email is typically pushed out (IIRC).  Using Outlook on a POP3 account means you click "Send/Receive" (or Outlook does that from time to time).  On a mobile device, polling is very bad for battery, so pushing is better.  (BBs do have a "heartbeat signal" but that is beside the point).  Basically, once the email hits your own mail server, you get it within milliseconds.  No waiting.

blowdart wrote:



DoomBringer wrote:  It does seem to do push email (which is absolutely essential).  From what sources, I do not know.  The bare essentials would be a desktop redirector that hooks into Outlook/MAPI, which is easy to implement but hardly enterprise class.

Hmm, so you need to persuade IT to put another fragile (take note blackberry) layer on top of your email system, assuming it's available for that email system.

A redirector which requires the desktop turned on all the time is hardly ideal, and of course increases costs, management, energy, equipment lifetime and so on.

Apple haven't released details yet have they? They're recommending users get a yahoo or gmail account (why yes, that's very corporate to get your business emails sent from big_bad_bob@gmail).

In fact apple's last marketing mail didn't mention push at all;

iPhone is the first phone to come with a desktop-class email application. So now your phone can display rich HTML email with graphics and photos alongside the text. iPhone will even fetch your latest email every time you open the application and automatically retrieve your email on a set schedule, just like a computer does. iPhone works with the most popular email systems—including Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, AOL, and .Mac Mail. If you're not already using one of these services, now would be a great time to get an account. iTunes will make email setup on iPhone a breeze by automatically syncing the settings from email accounts stored in Mail on a Mac or Outlook on a PC. Don't worry if you're not on one of these email services; iPhone also works with almost any industry-standard POP3 and IMAP email system.

Funny, my HTC Vox (WM6) displays rich HTML mail, and grpahics along side the text (of course photos *are* graphics).

The talk of fetch points to lack of push. And why the heck is iTunes doing the syncing and setup on the desktop. Why yes, rolling out iTunes onto corporate desktops really is a great idea!

Heh, BES can be fragile.  But I've managed to get really long lived uptimes on Win2k servers and stable Exchanges.  But if it breaks, good luck (oddly enough, minor tweaks to Windows and SQL get things happy most of the time, but learning those arcane tricks was HARD).

BlackBerry has both the enterprise server and the desktop redirector.  BES is much preferred by IT, because then they own the devices remotely.  Redirection requires a powered on and logged in desktop and cannot administer devices at all.  That is what IT wants, really: they don't want some loose cannon idiot with a whiz-bang device out there, exposing sensitive corp email over an unknown link over the Internet and on a mobile device that screams "STEAL ME!"  I also have to reiterate the corp intranets thing: using BES, you can grant access to the Internet and your corporate intranet, so you can run mobile versions of the apps you need out in the field.  Sure, exposing it publicly would make anybody with a browser enabled phone able to use it, but it wouldn't be encrypted by default and MUCH more exposed to hacks.  If there is a bug in my Pencil Pusher app, and it sits behind a strong firewall and communicates over a secure tunnel to just a few mobile users, big deal.

blowdart wrote:



DoomBringer wrote:  BlackBerry has both the enterprise server and the desktop redirector.  BES is much preferred by IT, because then they own the devices remotely.  Redirection requires a powered on and logged in desktop and cannot administer devices at all.  That is what IT wants, really: they don't want some loose cannon idiot with a whiz-bang device out there, exposing sensitive corp email over an unknown link over the Internet and on a mobile device that screams "STEAL ME!"

Indeed. I was much amused that when I synced my phone to Exchange 2007 OWA gave me, the user, the ability to blank the phone.

I'm so tempted to try it

I've done it on a BlackBerry once, it was just the same as a local security wipe that the thing has.  But still, if I ever think that Joe Blow over in marketing is getting too uppity... poof!  There goes the Executive Bling!

Sven Groot wrote:



DoomBringer wrote:  Sven Groot wrote:  DoomBringer wrote: It does seem to do push email (which is absolutely essential). Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is push e-mail? Push email is basically the email is delivered to you without you having to initiate anything.  For example, if you have to log into a webmail client, that is "pull" email, because you log in and pull the contents down.  Outlook operates in either mode, but in an Exchange environment, email is typically pushed out (IIRC).  Using Outlook on a POP3 account means you click "Send/Receive" (or Outlook does that from time to time).  On a mobile device, polling is very bad for battery, so pushing is better.  (BBs do have a "heartbeat signal" but that is beside the point).  Basically, once the email hits your own mail server, you get it within milliseconds.  No waiting.

Ah I see. Over here in Japan, every mobile phone offers this. When you get a mobile phone, you get an e-mail address from your carrier. Mails sent to this address are immediately delivered to the phone (with a big mail you get only the first few lines and have to download the rest; which costs money). I actually get the impression that the Japanese use phones more to send e-mail than to make calls (especially since talking on the phone on trains and buses is considered very impolite and nobody ever does it).

Over here, your "keitai mail address" is just as important as the phone number itself.

Most people I know have it set so they don't accept mail from the Internet though, but only from other phones. This is because of the large amounts of spam.

Well, mobile phones in Japan are actually artifacts from a future civilization of Lizard People from Mars, you see, teleported back in time...

Sure, every phone has a email address over here, typically.  But not your corporate email.  I could get a BlackBerry with a @mycingular.net email address, but I'd rather get my corporate email on the go.  Obviously, IT cannot administer the email account created by Verizon or Cingular, but they can administer their own BES/Exchange getup.