- 5,116
- Panama City, FL
Having worked to integrate numerous Blackberry phones into my customers' email systems (mostly Microsoft Exchange, with one Novell GroupWise and a few ISP POP systems) I have to say that I just don't get it. What is so magical about these things? Everybody has to have one, because all the people they work with have one.
But . . . . . . Why? What does it do?
With what comes in the box, you can configure it to link to your email a couple of ways. Use the Desktop Redirector to watch your Outlook for you, and it will send whatever you get. But your machine has to stay powered up and logged in (although possibly locked.) You can also use the Blackberry Internet Service and define your account settings online, through the phone or your PC's browser. That service automatically dies every 6 to 8 weeks and stops sending mail, until you sign on and re-validate your account. If it fails to log in to your mail server (maybe your server people took it down for an upgrade or something) it stops, too. But all you get is email. You don't get calendar, you don't get tasks, you don't get contacts, you don't get notes. For those you have to connect to the PC and sync using the Intellisync software built into the Desktop Manager.
If your company is large enough, they can spend several thousand dollars for the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), which allows wireless sync of all those other apps with Exchange, Notes, or GroupWise. Works well, but expensive. Recently, though, they introduced Blackberry Professional Software, which is a limited license-count version of BES, and much less expensive. It's actually free for a single user, but how many companies with their own mail server have a single user? It's about 50 bucks each for additional users. Point is, it's extra cost beyond what comes with the device in the box. Furthermore, BES adds a management task to your IT people's lives, as it does not integrate, it merely communicates. You have to define your mail users separately in its own database, you can't just say "These Exchange users have Blackberries, sync them." And with BES, if your phones were not provisioned for BES by your carrier when you got them, you'll have to call them and get that changed, because BES won't work with them.
So the Blackberry, "famous" for wireless email support, doesn't do anything else PIM-wise wirelessly, unless you work for a generous company.
The i-Phone is a bit better. It has Exchange sync built in, although it takes some doing to get it set up. Once done, it wirelessly syncs mail, calendar, and contacts with Exchange. You can pick and choose which apps to sync if you need to, like if you've already got a contacts list in the phone that's different from your Exchange contacts. Other mail systems aren't supported so well, though. You can POP3 to anything, but you won't get calendar or contacts that way.
A Windows phone supports Exchange right out of the box. Fill in the field for your mail server's name, then fill in your login name and password. Tell it which apps to sync (mail, calendar, tasks, notes) and there they are. Right the #&@$ now.
Folks say that the Blackberry is easier to use, the trackball interface is one-handed. Maybe so, but it's slow. I've gotten pretty good with one-handed use of my Windows touch-screen phone, using my thumbnail as a stylus, and the thumbwheel for selection within an app.
So if you're a user at a company that has its own Exchange server and you want email and calendar and contacts whenever and wherever, you cannot beat using a Windows phone. It's high performance, versatile, and familiar. Trillions of apps exist for it, too.
But . . . . . . Why? What does it do?
With what comes in the box, you can configure it to link to your email a couple of ways. Use the Desktop Redirector to watch your Outlook for you, and it will send whatever you get. But your machine has to stay powered up and logged in (although possibly locked.) You can also use the Blackberry Internet Service and define your account settings online, through the phone or your PC's browser. That service automatically dies every 6 to 8 weeks and stops sending mail, until you sign on and re-validate your account. If it fails to log in to your mail server (maybe your server people took it down for an upgrade or something) it stops, too. But all you get is email. You don't get calendar, you don't get tasks, you don't get contacts, you don't get notes. For those you have to connect to the PC and sync using the Intellisync software built into the Desktop Manager.
If your company is large enough, they can spend several thousand dollars for the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), which allows wireless sync of all those other apps with Exchange, Notes, or GroupWise. Works well, but expensive. Recently, though, they introduced Blackberry Professional Software, which is a limited license-count version of BES, and much less expensive. It's actually free for a single user, but how many companies with their own mail server have a single user? It's about 50 bucks each for additional users. Point is, it's extra cost beyond what comes with the device in the box. Furthermore, BES adds a management task to your IT people's lives, as it does not integrate, it merely communicates. You have to define your mail users separately in its own database, you can't just say "These Exchange users have Blackberries, sync them." And with BES, if your phones were not provisioned for BES by your carrier when you got them, you'll have to call them and get that changed, because BES won't work with them.
So the Blackberry, "famous" for wireless email support, doesn't do anything else PIM-wise wirelessly, unless you work for a generous company.
The i-Phone is a bit better. It has Exchange sync built in, although it takes some doing to get it set up. Once done, it wirelessly syncs mail, calendar, and contacts with Exchange. You can pick and choose which apps to sync if you need to, like if you've already got a contacts list in the phone that's different from your Exchange contacts. Other mail systems aren't supported so well, though. You can POP3 to anything, but you won't get calendar or contacts that way.
A Windows phone supports Exchange right out of the box. Fill in the field for your mail server's name, then fill in your login name and password. Tell it which apps to sync (mail, calendar, tasks, notes) and there they are. Right the #&@$ now.
Folks say that the Blackberry is easier to use, the trackball interface is one-handed. Maybe so, but it's slow. I've gotten pretty good with one-handed use of my Windows touch-screen phone, using my thumbnail as a stylus, and the thumbwheel for selection within an app.
So if you're a user at a company that has its own Exchange server and you want email and calendar and contacts whenever and wherever, you cannot beat using a Windows phone. It's high performance, versatile, and familiar. Trillions of apps exist for it, too.
