It's my impression that lots of people get push e-mail wrong - I'm curious to hear what community members think.

From what I've heard (including here on the Connection), many customers believe that only Blackberry makes "true" push e-mail available to ordinary consumers without an enterprise server, while Windows Mobile offers true direct push only to business customers.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but while this may have been somewhat true in the past, it's not any longer. Here's how I might explain the issue to customers - what do you think of my explanation?

When anyone with a Web- or ISP-based e-mail accounts gets a Blackberry and signs up for Blackberry Internet Service (BIS), they set up their device with one or a few e-mail addresses, and shortly start receiving e-mail. But what's really happening? BIS is simply checking those e-mail accounts periodically, on a 15-minute schedule, and is only forwarding mail from a few, select accounts to the device through direct push. In order to get consistent "true" push e-mail delivery, Blackberry users must forward all of their Web-based accounts to a BIS e-mail account, which is maintained by the mobile operator. The BIS account then "pushes" messages directly to the phone. In a sense, BIS acts like an Exchange Server. It's all a bit confusing.

Now, with Windows Mobile, the process is similar, at least at first: Enter several Web- or ISP-based e-mail accounts on the device, and e-mail messages arrive periodically. But here's the key difference: With a Windows Mobile phone, you can get direct push delivery without relying on a "middleman" service like BIS. How? Hotmail happens to offer direct push e-mail delivery (and Contacts sync!) with Windows Live for Windows Mobile. So, you simply hook up a Hotmail address, forward other e-mail accounts to it if you wish, access the Hotmail account through Windows Live for Windows Mobile, and voila: direct push e-mail delivery.

So is this a good explanation? How do you tell the direct push story to customers? Is this inherently confusing, or is there an even simpler way to make the situation clear?

Thanks for your thoughts!

Bill Fisher:

So is this a good explanation?

I love the fact that with a free Microsoft email address people can receive their email pushed directly to their personal/work phone without needing to run through an enterprise setup.

It is always good to remind people about the HTML emails. Being able to view the emails in their original format on the phone is very important to alot of people, especially those who receive personal emails on it.

Biomehanika:

It is always good to remind people about the HTML emails.

That's an excellent point Biomehanika.

The only good thing about BlackBerry phones/accounts is its push email ability. Windows Mobile is catching up to that. It's a matter of time till people realize that they don't need a BlackBerry phone or a BlackBerry account to get their important email pushed to their devices. You can now do the same thing with Windows Mobile and with full HTML support. People criticize Windows Mobile's Internet Explorer, and I can understand why, but when you compare it to BlackBerry's browser you can clearly see that IE is generations ahead.

As a programmer, I sometimes build web applications with mobile support. And some of my clients use BlackBerry devices and they want to access the web application on it. For the life of me, I don't understand why they keep calling the mobile version of the web app "BlackBerry Pages"?? Anyways, working with two emulators, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry, I realized how it is a pain to optimize those mobile pages to work on the BlackBerry browser.

Anyways, I think I took this opportunity to blow off some steam 

I would just like to add the Microsoft isn't "Catching up" it has passed Blackberry some time ago, it's just a perception issue. In an Blackberry Enterprise setup the BES server polls the Exchange accounts ! When it detects a change is send the message to the RIM relay, based in Canada, which Pushes the email out to the devices. Bit of long way 'round the houses. The Windows Mobile Device, on the other hand, connects directly with the Exchange Enterprise. The Exchange server monitors itself for changes, and instantly sends new email to the device. A much faster direct connection !  So Exchange Activesync is “True Direct Push”. Now that Microsoft has relesed System Centre Mobile Device Manager it is way out in front of the competition..  

Just thought I'd add my 2 cents.

Thanks Wayne - Welcome to The Connection.

Bill Fisher:

So is this a good explanation? How do you tell the direct push story to customers?

In my view there are 2 ways of tackling this. The usual approach is to play RIM's game (hyping push email) and get in there with the "me too" response. What I prefer to do is question why it's so important to receive an email the instant it's delivered to your mailbox. Email is by design an asynchronous communication tool. If you need realtime communications with someone, pick up the phone or use IM. Unfortunately, I seem to be in a minority on this one.

You make a good point David - why is there a desperate need to get your email the second it arrives? Though I can think of some jobs where this might be necessary. For instance there are some support jobs where the support request comes in via email and the customer has bought a contract where he is entitled to a response within a certain time.

I think that most people want push mail because they have it on their PCs.

Biomehanika:

It is always good to remind people about the HTML emails.

 I agree whole heartly..HTML format is a must for me.

Ahmed Eltawil:

Windows Mobile and BlackBerry, I realized how it is a pain to optimize those mobile pages to work on the BlackBerry browser.

Ahmed....I agree...we also come across this quite a bit and it is a pain!!

Now that Windows Live is available for download as a stand alone app, WM has a great personal push email solution (contact sync gives a clear advantage over BIS).  However, I have found the Hotmail push email to be HIGHLY unreliable for about the past year.  On both At&t and Verizon, I have had major issues with emails not being delivered and find myself using the send and receive option to get my email WAY too often.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

 The other major limitation of the WL client, is the 30,000 character limit.  This essentially makes it impossible to have the entire message delivered without manually downloading it.  I am pretty sure this is also the reason why calendar appts do not come through right.

 These are the only things that stop me from selling WL push email as a solution for small business messaging.

1)  Make push email more reliable
2)  Remove 30,000 character limit
3)  Add support for meeting invites

Thoughts?

Laura Rooke:

Thanks Wayne - Welcome to The Connection.

Thanks Laura, I hope I can add a little somthing to the forum. Altough, It looks like you've got most sections covered.

Wayne Phillips:

It looks like you've got most sections covered

Not even nearly - we're all constantly learning from each other which is so great.

I'm having an identity crisis. I'll re-post

Instead of Live HotmaiI, I would be recommending Small Business Server to small business messaging customers. I does what it says on the packet !

1) SBS Exchange ActiveSync Push is bullet proof. I've never had a problem with unreliable Push Email on SBS Exchange.

2) I would not recommend automatically downloading email of more than 30,000 characters automatically. You can receive and view emails of this size and much bigger, but only after you manually download it. With the limited memory on all mobile devices, I recommend setting this to the minimum users can bare. e.g. 200 characters. If you have lots of large emails downloaded automatically the device quickly runs out of space. Having a large initial download will increase support calls.

3) I’ve never had a problem with Windows Mobile calendaring, can you describe the issue ?

Cheers Wayne

Welcome njmarchetti - I have been using Hotmail push email for a while and I don't believe that I have lost any emails.