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March 14th, 2008

Apple announces iPhone to support Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync Protocol!!

On March 6th, 2008, Apple announced their Apple iPhone 2.0 Beta version with Enterprise options. With this release, Apples plans to provide features that support Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync Protocol. By supporting ActiveSync, the iPhone will be capable of handling these awesome mobile communication features:

 

  • Direct Push of Email, Including folder management
  • Direct Push of Calendar Items
  • Direct Push of Contacts
  • Gain access to the Exchange Server Global Address List
  • Include Microsoft Security features for Enterprise support

 

To learn more about the benefits of Exchange Server, take a look at our Manage Services - Exchange Server page

 

Why do we see this iPhone release having such an impact?

Now this news isn't so much about the features that the iPhone will be adding. There are already many phones similar to the Apple iPhone that can manage ActiveSync. All the major cariers have some form of Windows Mobile or Palm device capable of handling ActiveSync. Such devices are the Treo, Windows Mobile devices like the Motorola Q, Samsung Ace, HTC Mogul, etc. All have been doing this type of communication for years.

 

So, why is this so exciting, if there are already so many PDA solutions on the market that can already do this? In our opinion, it comes down to one thing. Performance!! The iPhone comes with so many standard features, and runs the Mac OS X standard on it's system. When you use an iPhone, just like a Mac, it is just a smart solution. No delays in operation, and the design of the software is so natural to use. It really is revolutionizing the PDA-Mobile Phone hardware industry, as Apple tends to do.

 

But because the iPhone could not support ActiveSync, we could not recommend the iPhone to users of Exchange Servers with ActiveSync enabled. There are just too many benefits for the mobile user when managing email, calendar, contacts, and tasks with ActiveSync.

 

Now the best of both worlds appears to be on its way and we are very excited about the possibilities. It will only be a matter of time before you see our technicians walking down the streets with iPhones, colaborating with clients and co-workers, completely in sync with our Exchange Server information. And, we are confident that the iPhone will perform as well as, if not tremendously better, than the other technologies in the marketplace.

 

We can only hope that by the time this true non-Beta version is released, with ActiveSync support, that there will be a selection of network providers (i.e. Verizon, Sprint) to choose from for the iPhone as well. That alone is a whole conversation we will discuss on another day!!

 

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