iPhone slays Windows geek — but which device rules the enterprise?

InfoWorld’s Peter Bruzzese lost his heart to the iPhone, but his head is still with Windows Mobile 6 when it comes to e-mail

The woman behind the Verizon counter held out the latest in sleek devices. My response was, “I want no camera, no text messaging, no fancy games, just large buttons and a phone that makes ringy noises when a call comes in — like the old days!”

I was done with phone technology enhancements. I just wanted an ordinary cell phone, one they offer for geriatric users. I would have settled for one of those shoe phones with the rotary dial in the heel like Maxwell Smart used to wear. That was until I saw … the iPhone.

Reminding me of young Ralphie’s “official Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot range-model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time,” the iPhone, I knew, was worth any price. True, I had seen the new BlackBerry 8800, and just about every Windows Mobile 6 device on the market was displayed in Orlando at Tech Ed 2008 (and I played with all of them). But nothing beats the iPhone.

But just around the time I was going to purchase my new iPhone, I handled a consulting job that had the entire company begging me to get their phones to work with their new Exchange 2007 servers. That exercise highlighted key differences between the three flavors of phone from the enterprise perspective.

For those in the company that had Mobile 5- or 6-oriented phones, no problem. Then the BlackBerrys and iPhones came into play. The problem was Exchange ActiveSync (EAS). This allows for rich collaboration that goes beyond standard e-mail, including Direct Push, calendar synchronization, GAL lookup, access to SharePoint libraries, and more.

Microsoft makes the Now ActiveSync protocol available to interested parties: “Microsoft offers a commercially reasonable, nonexclusive license so that other companies can use the Exchange ActiveSync Protocol in their own products. Microsoft will license its trade secrets and necessary patent claims for implementation of the protocol specification.”

Many vendors, including Palm, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola, have deals to use ActiveSync. Well, what about the iPhone or BlackBerry?

Not quite. You can work with your iPhone by enabling IMAP support on your Exchange environment. This will only provide you with e-mail support, but not quite the robust support you get from EAS. You can read more about the distinctions between the two on the Exchange Team Blog Site.

There, you’ll also find that some angry words exchanged from both sides of the fence. On the iPhone side, Chris Williams wrote, “I really don’t care about ActiveSync, because it’s not supported on my iPhone. Given the choice between a WM device with ActiveSync and an iPhone using IMAP, I’m all over that iPhone choice.”

Meanwhile, Robert Studer said, “Hey iPhoners, the business world runs on Microsoft. Get over it and get back to designing really cool Quick-time movies for me to browse on break.”

Now before the claws come out on this one, keep in mind the space we are discussing here is enterprise. From that perspective, one key aspect to EAS is that it has remote deletion for phones that get lost or stolen. This is not available with IMAP connections to Exchange, and many enterprise companies will not allow you to sync with the messaging servers if you cannot ensure the contents are removed if the device goes AWOL.

(To read more about the iPhone issues within businesses — and some possibilities through Visto and Sybase — check out Leon Erlanger’s article “Outfitting the iPhone for business.”)

As for BlackBerry: The company has an enterprise solution that requires you to go through BlackBerry Enterprise Servers (BES), which connect your device to your messaging and collaboration software (be it Exchange, Domino, GroupWise) to synchronize.

Of course, e-mail syncing isn’t the only consideration when choosing a device for your mobile fleet. Rounding out the discussion, let’s look at some end-user-oriented features on each of the devices:

iPhone: 8GB or 16GB flash drives, OS X, wireless (Wi-Fi, EDGE, or Bluetooth 2.0+EDR), with a 2-megapixel camera and more features than I can relate, including an audio and video iPod.

BlackBerry: Has a variety of series, including the Pearl, the Curve, and the 8800. Functions as a PDA and a cell phone; is Bluetooth-enabled; comes with GPS navigation and plenty of other bells and whistles.

Mobile 6 devices: With over 20 different devices running Mobile 6, it’s hard to pick any one and say, “This is the ultimate.” But the AT&T BlackJack, the Verizon Wireless Samsung SCH-i760, Motorola, HP, Palm, and Toshiba are all in the running, offering a QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi connectivity, the Office package (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook Mobile), Media Player, Live Search, Windows Live, and more.

From a user-oriented perspective, several things may drive your decision. If you are used to working with a BlackBerry, you may just continue out of familiarity. Some like to keep everything in the family and may go with a Mobile 6 device (with prices coming in lower in most cases, due to contract deals and rebates). The iPhone is impressive, but so is the cost with a $399 (8GB) or $499 (16GB) price tag attached.

So I toss it out to the readers now. Where do you stand on the matter? What are you using in your companies? And if you want to toss in another technology, such as Good’s Mobile GMM, be my guest!

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