iPhone on Exchange Better / Worse Than Blackberry

[iphoneswitcher]

Hello. I'm testing out an iphone on my company's exchange network right now, and have come across the following issues which make me wonder whether an iPhone running on Exchange can satisfy the demanding email needs of lawyers / bankers / accountants / executives the same way a Blackberry can. Has anyone found ways to deal with the following:

- Email (with push, not fetch) on the iPhone using Exchange can still lag a few minutes behind the Blackberry, even with the Mail application open.

- Email cannot be filed by typing the first few letters of the desired folder, as is the case with the Blackberry. Rather, a user must gesture through what might be a very large list of folders to find the right one.

- Once email previews are downloaded on the iPhone, in order to read the entire email, a second download is required. Thus, if a user gets onto a plane (without WiFi) after the iPhone shows 20 new messages, none of those new messages can be read / displayed.

- No persistent alert (such as on the menu bar) when an email has arrived. Users must unlock the phone to confirm whether or not an email has arrived (assuming the user didn't hear the email alert). This is an unnecessary hassle for people who get hundreds of emails a day.

Thanks. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[chobbs1]

you have probably stumped the lot of us. perhaps there is no work around for these. I have read and reread your post and can think of no solution to any of your issues. for me, these are non issues, it seems that I have grown accustomed to how the phone works and I just know what I have to do to get what I want from the phone.

 

[Alli]

Basically Exchange is not BES. Blackberries were designed to work only with their own email servers, and they excel at that. If email is the number one determining factor in getting/using a phone...stick with a BB.

 

[flyingember]

- Email (with push, not fetch) on the iPhone using Exchange can still lag a few minutes behind the Blackberry, even with the Mail application open.

In my environment Active Sync the same or faster the BES. The downside is once the phone goes to deep sleep receiving emails lags or doesn't work at all until the phone comes out of sleep, even with push on. Blackberries are far better here.

- Once email previews are downloaded on the iPhone, in order to read the entire email, a second download is required. Thus, if a user gets onto a plane (without WiFi) after the iPhone shows 20 new messages, none of those new messages can be read / displayed.

It's a fraction of a second for most emails and the full download happens without any input being needed. It's a connection problem or large email that causes lags in receiving email, something a blackberry would take time to download as well.

- No persistent alert (such as on the menu bar) when an email has arrived. Users must unlock the phone to confirm whether or not an email has arrived (assuming the user didn't hear the email alert). This is an unnecessary hassle for people who get hundreds of emails a day.

100 emails in a workday is one email every 5 minutes, 200 emails is an alert every 2.5 minutes, etc. 200 (lowest "hundreds") in 24 hours is one email every 8 minutes all day and all night. I doubt they're having problems knowing they get email. Plus, iphone email alerts vibrate as well.

The menu bar alert has a direct comparable item. The email app has an overlaid notification badge when they have a new email. The badge tells the number of new emails. The number goes down when they view new emails.

Are you requiring a passcode lock for blackberries? I know you can require this. I imagine you're doing this since not doing this for a device a lawyer uses seems like very poor security. If so, the time to unlock is about the same for both devices.

--------------------
All of that aside I'll put it this way. I support both where I work. Some people love one device, others the other. We've had people try the iphone and give it up and some get a blackberry and request an iphone.

What I would investigate more than email is battery life. Hundreds of emails or a phone heavy exec will kill the battery every day for sure.

 

[iphoneswitcher]

Thanks, Flyingember. A few questions:

1. Are you sure that if your iPhone downloads the preview, and then you lose your connection (before reading the full message), that you can read the full message without downloading it?

2. Does the badge work with mail when the phone is security locked? Perhaps I didn't recognize how to turn that feature on.

 

[chobbs1]

is iphonefan76 a salesperson? I have seen this exact post several times befor in other threads???

 

[Jedi]

While the iPhone does work quite well as a business tool, don't forget its primary role is as an entertainment, multimedia and internet device.

If you want enterprise grade messaging above all else, Blackberry is the way to go.

 

[Rich]

is iphonefan76 a salesperson? I have seen this exact post several times befor in other threads???

Although he does have a couple of valid posts (two, maybe three?), the majority of his replies are definitely advertisements. He should be labeled a SPAMMER!

 

[flyingember]

Thanks, Flyingember. A few questions:

1. Are you sure that if your iPhone downloads the preview, and then you lose your connection (before reading the full message), that you can read the full message without downloading it?

How could any client show the full message before it downloads it? This is not an iphone issue but rather something that can happen in ANY email client mobile or otherwise.

2. Does the badge work with mail when the phone is security locked? Perhaps I didn't recognize how to turn that feature on.

No, and I agree it needs this.

 

[Duvi]

How could any client show the full message before it downloads it? This is not an iphone issue but rather something that can happen in ANY email client mobile or otherwise.

No, and I agree it needs this.

What he meant with the first question was, suppose you lose connection after the email has already been received on the device. If the email is automatically downloaded, does he need a connection to view and read the full contents or can it still be read since the message was d/led to the device.

In BlackBerry world, the full message doesn't always d/l fully and you have to manually d/l more or all of the message.

This is how I read it, could be wrong.

 

[iphoneswitcher]

What he meant with the first question was, suppose you lose connection after the email has already been received on the device. If the email is automatically downloaded, does he need a connection to view and read the full contents or can it still be read since the message was d/led to the device.

In BlackBerry world, the full message doesn't always d/l fully and you have to manually d/l more or all of the message.

This is how I read it, could be wrong.

That's absolutely correct. In blackberry world, you can set how much of the message automatically downloads (anything more requires a manual download). It appears in iPhone world, you can only control the number of lines in the "preview". Does anyone know how to get an equivalent experience in iPhone world, where you can set the iPhone to download the first say, 5k of each message? I'm trying to avoid the situation where someone gets 10 new messages on the way to the airport, then hops on a plane and can't read any of them.

 

[UTVOL06]

In my environment Active Sync the same or faster the BES. The downside is once the phone goes to deep sleep receiving emails lags or doesn't work at all until the phone comes out of sleep, even with push on. Blackberries are far better here.

Actually I believe the main culprit to delayed push emails or none at all in sleep mode is if you have wifi on and connected. I've done a lot of testing and having wifi on and connected even with cellular connection causes delayed or no emails during sleep on my iPhone 3GS for push mobileme email.

If I keep wifi off I receive my push mobileme email on time without delay even when the device has been in sleep for a couple of hours. I can replicate this repeatedly.

This is some sort of software or router setting issue. This is my first iPhone and not sure if this is something caused by os 3.0 or if its also present in 2.2? From what I have herd from others os 2.2 does not have this issue.

 

[flyingember]

What he meant with the first question was, suppose you lose connection after the email has already been received on the device. If the email is automatically downloaded, does he need a connection to view and read the full contents or can it still be read since the message was d/led to the device.

In BlackBerry world, the full message doesn't always d/l fully and you have to manually d/l more or all of the message.

This is how I read it, could be wrong.

at the end of the day maybe it should be that people getting on airplanes just deal not able to read their email unless they're proactive. it's not always a technological problem.

and email and airplanes may be so far down the list of real world issues that it's not worth deciding a device off of

 

[flyingember]

That's absolutely correct. In blackberry world, you can set how much of the message automatically downloads (anything more requires a manual download). It appears in iPhone world, you can only control the number of lines in the "preview".

I'm certain it downloads the entire message in the background because I know I've seen times where it tells me it's downloading it (when I get to the email before it finishes downloading it)

very rarely will I have a "press to download more" option at the end and that's mostly for images.

 

[websyndicate]

Exchange

I have never user the black berry exchange. I know that its not supported in many corporate environments. I work for Microsoft and I am allowed exchange on my iPhone but I have to the a passcode on. It work too well for me over edge.

 

[alokeprasad]

All these shortcomings can be solved if Apple opens up the e-mail clients development to 3rd party developers. I was disappointed to learn that there are no 3rd party email client apps for the iPhone/iPodTouch..

Coming from the world of Treo and ChatterEmail, this is still a big downside, but I'll have to accept this as a compromise in return for a better entertainment device.