iphone vs Windows Mobile for business
 

Wife and I are going to change phones. She wants an iphone. The thing seems absurdly expensive, but but I'll go along. I just use my phone for....wait for it.....calling people and text anyway.

But I'm more worried about the wife. She is a physician, and I'm kind of thinking she would be better off with a Windows mobile device.

Have any of you iphone users run into serious limitations? Is there any software out there that would allow her to read Word/Excel docs on the iphone?

The fact that they cannot directly sync to Exchange yet is absurd. I guess I can have an Exchange account forward everything to a Yahoo account and push it from there, but its a completely insecure work around.

iphone serious limitation: no Cut & Paste.

I also wouldn't want to give up writing cursive for inputing notes. --even tho my phone has a slide out keyboard, writing with a stylus really rocks.

Do you have a T mobile Wing?

What does she have now?

I love my iPhone, but there are a few things that need to be changed; cut and paste, 3rd party apps, missed call reminder, independently password protected apps. It's a long list, easily fixed with software updates. Apple is usually pretty good about these things.

She has a HP ipaq that runs some ancient flavor of Windows mobile.

I phone is not really a business tool, we tried to get decent integration into our applications, however the lack of secured email to exchange, and other glaring limitations had us scrap the whole project.

An iPhone can read Word/Excel docs now, as well as PDFs.

You might want to wait until the iPhone SDK is released and see what apps are forthcoming. IMHO, there will be a flood of new apps very shortly and there will be Exchange solutions in there too.

Yes, cut and paste is lacking AND is a big deal that Apple should fix in the next software update.

I use my phone for personal and business and have found very little lacking compared to the other "stuff" available now. :)

To me at least, the iPhone doesn't seem to be any more expensive than comparable smart phones.

Best,

Kurt

edit: One more thing, AT&T is now selling iPhones to business accounts, which is IMHO, a sign that the "enterprise" will be more directly addressed in future software offerings.

Can't integrate with BES, so corporate email is going to be a no-go.

I have the Verizon of that HTC phone. The wing is very similar in form, but the processor speed is half ...so memory prob's too. Verizon has a couple nice Pocket PC phones. THe Samsung SCH-i760 and the HTC XV6800. If she is accustom to an ipaq she should have an easy time with a Pocket PC phone.


I just checked, Verizon now has another P-PC phone, SMT5800. --nice that it has a real 10-key pad front, and the slide out qwerty.

Edit: scratch that. the SMT5800 is a "smartphone" = no touchscreen.

get a win mobile if you are a biz user, iphone if you are a consumer that need the latest bling and the $$ to toss at it.

BTW, iPhone supports MS Exchange now - I haven't used it but it's there.

And, I think when the SDK is released and developers are "let loose" you will see BES solutions as well.

Best,

Kurt

I have the Samsung sch-i760 and it is a great device.

It combines the occasionally cool qualities of a touch screen with a slide out keyboard. Also the freehand notepad IS very nice as mentioned.

I can't think of anything it can't do and it's been very rugged. I just toss it in my pocket with no cover or anything, not a scratch on it.

Another nice feature on it is the micro-SD memory slot.

If you're into the video and music end it has a very good screen and sound. And yes you can stream videos, etc..

Kurt, are you sure? I know it can get mail via POP3 or IMAP4, but what I am hearing is that it will be the next version of the iPhone that will have AirSync.

?

I know it support IMAP and POP, but Exchange Active Sync? Some third party app I don't know about?

I read an article wrong - apparently Exchange works well on MS's own web based access according to some folks.

Have you looked at Zimbra or Hyperoffice?

Hyperoffice: http://www.hyperoffice.com/hypermain/highlights/iphone.cfm

I checked the Apple forums and some folks have developed work-arounds and Apple have even published some papers on setting up an enterprise server to work with iPhone and using VPN on iPhone.

Enterprise server set-up: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307313

VPN: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305723

My "guess" :) is that most corps. want official Apple support.

I have read correctly that Apple is working on an Exchange fix and for full support - they are even hiring folks with deep Exchange experience. FWIW, Jobs committed to having a complete MS Exchange solution months ago.

I bet Apple get it right if the 3rd party developers don't do it first, but the proof will be in the pudding.

Best,

Kurt

Let me frame my comments: As soon as the iPhone supports Exchange, I am buying an iPhone. It will instantly become the 800 pound gorilla in the corporate messaging world.

That said, take it to the bank... ActiveSync works slick as sheep snot on a WM phone. And we don't have the national outages the crackberry users have. :D

I got an iphone for Christmas, personally don't like the touchpad, too easy to "touch" an incorrect contact, and also too easy (for me) to touch the wrong key when typing a message.

I do like the browser though, and email pickup works fine.

Just my .02.

e

Its an "iff" and according to Microsoft, they still have not agreed to support it on their end. You may end up with a hack job of an active sync solution. The BES issue is much bigger than Apple lets on, RIM makes their own hardware, and they don't need any more competition.

Scott, you may well be right. I have heard that Apple has licensed ActiveSync (I think the
correct term is AirSync) and that they have not licensed it. Lot of money out there to be made, that's for sure!

My guess is that when the iPhone SDK hits, there will be folks who reverse engineer a BES program that will enable an iPhone to access a BES network.

But, perhaps there are technical issues I am ignorant of . . .

Best,

Kurt