An Exchange Server admin and Microsoft MVP for Exchange and Office Communications Server, blogger Paul Robichaux recently wrote an article titled "The iPhone as a mail device," focusing closely on the iPhone's prospects as an Exchange-compatible device in the enterprise. His verdict?

"Apple has been getting a ton of press about the launch of v2.0 of the iPhone software (along with the iPhone 3G, of course!) I've been using a pre-release version of the v2.0 firmware on my iPhone, but I didn't want to write about it until the release because I hoped that some of the glaring problems with Apple's implementation would be fixed in the RTM version. Sadly, this doesn't seem to be the case. ...

From my standpoint as an experienced Exchange administrator and WM device wrangler, there are still a lot of missing pieces (or things that are poorly implemented)."

It's definitely worth a read.

WOW - this article is definitely worth reading - many times.

What a shame that Apple got a service so wrong, which they have shouted so loudly about having.

Maybe the future versions will correct these issues.

I wonder what testing in the real world they used when producing the software. Considering that they must have consulted Microsoft for the compatabilty, you think they would have been able to produce a product which covered all of Exchanges functionality. 

The sad reality is that it doesn't matter if they got it right. People buy it because of the hype and preception is everything. It does email good and it surfs the web good and that is all the normal user cares about. Those of us that use WM know what they are missing but most of those using the iphone don't know and never will.

I'm thinking that the enterprise will notice and that will make the big difference.

iPhone v1s were never really adopted as an enterprise device as they were never really secure enough and lacked the necessary functionality. It seems the 3G iPhones still don't have this.

Windows Mobiles are perfect for the business models and stories like this one only emphasise that fact more and more.