Blackberry vs. Windows Mobile for mail

[Lollypop]

This is a long post but I need to get this off my mind ASAP, and it might be in the wrong thread so my appologies in advance...

Ive posted a few times about my companies love for everything windows and its disdain about anything not from M$.... so here is the current situation... for a while we have been looking into sollutions to allow the companies employees mobile access to their corporate email, earlier this year a sollution was dismissed because budget wasnt avaialbe. So (as usual) the issue came back when someone wanted full access to their mail and it wasnt available. The M$ lovers here jumped all over the situation and said that windows mobile based equipment was the way to go... out of the box, simply with active sync (no additional security mechianisms) ... and that once we upgrade to exchange service pack 2 we will get extra security for free!

Someone high up suggested to us to look into blackberry... we had one of our service providers install a demonstration blackberry enterprise server (BES), the installation was however a botched job, resulting in the actual handheld only having partial funtionality, the windows people jumped all over the situation and called the blackberry a flawed and very insecure product. Since then I have managed to repair the BES and have become fond of my 7290, but the damage is done, key people are now against the blackberry. Ive been called too openminded for our organization and some people have said im a trouble maker, ive always tried to support the best sollution, but im wondering, ive never used windows mobile devices, am I really supporting the best option? Could it be that im just to open minded?

More importantly, (1) what would you prefer, to access your corporate mail through a blackberry or a windows mobile 5 pda? (2) If you know anything about security do you think plain active sync is good enough or is the near overkill security of the blackberry more to your taste? (3) If you have ever worked with a blackberry in an enterprise setting do you think the blackberry is a good sollution for mobile mail and mobile applications, good enough to have more people say your "too open minded" or "a trouble maker"?

 

[iGary]

Blackberry.

Windows Mobile is about as good as Windows XP.

Also the Blackberry is far easier to use - the keyboard specifically.

Rob has one and it is flawless - as do several of our friends.

I hear nothing but bitching from the Palm Windows crowd (Treo).

 

[clayj]

I use a Cingular 2125 Windows Mobile 5.0 smartphone, which syncs (using ActiveSync) to my home-based Exchange 2003 Server. Works perfectly... between the phone, Outlook Web Access, Outlook on my PC, and Entourage on 2 Macs, all of my e-mail is always synched between any place I choose to access it. The only reason I don't compose mail on my phone (except for very short "OK"-type messages) is that typing on a numeric keypad is a pain in the ass... at some point, I may upgrade to a Motorola Q or something similar.

 

[iGary]

that typing on a numeric keypad is a pain in the ass

Same here with the Treo. The keyboard is so useless I don't even bother.

When I had a Blackberry I could text people in the meeting room under the table without even looking - the keyboard is that good:

"Hey, is this guy a blowbag or what?"

 

[Lollypop]

So the keyboard on the blackberry is one of its most popular features it seems.. cool...

Clayj, why did you go the activesync route? Was cost the biggest factor? Im just trying to understand the overwhelming resistant Im seeing against the Blackberry.

Initially they called it security concerns but as Ive researched the Blackberry ive realized they use it as a excuse for something else...

 

[mariahlullaby]

I've had both a Dell Axim X50 and I now I have a Blackberry.

The Axim was great, but I didn't like the mail feature. However, the main screen was flawless...I loved how it was organized and I wish the Blackberry was like that.

The BB is great for email, and the keypad is amazing. Only thing I don't particularly care for is its built in calendar feature, though I do use it a lot.

 

[cwedl]

I've had both.. Windows Mobile is good if you are on the train and want to watch videos i.e. mess around, But i loved my qwerty keyboard, I could type really fast, the calender on windows mobile is much better, and easy to sync with outlook. If I had the chose I would say Blackberry all the time, but it depends what I will be doing.

 

[clayj]

Clayj, why did you go the activesync route? Was cost the biggest factor? Im just trying to understand the overwhelming resistant Im seeing against the Blackberry.

Well, I did used to work for Microsoft, so I was able to get Small Business Server 2003 at a really good discount... but for me I guess the #1 factor was that, having previously been an Outlook/Exchange support person, I took a LOT of calls from people who had trouble getting their e-mail to sync properly when using Blackberry Enterprise Server. Seems like I had two or three cases a week where someone would call in and say "my Blackberry isn't working right with Outlook". ActiveSync, for the most part, doesn't have any issues like that.

 

[Lollypop]

What were the issues the users were having? For end users "my Blackberry isn't working right with Outlook" says a lot, for me it says nothing!

I know of a few issues we have had, mostly with deleted mails not being deleted on the blackberry, but in most cased ive found if the blackberry is set up the right way and the user is restricted from making changes there are no problems.

What was the user groups size of your BES? Were still under 20 users and we have almost eliminated support issues... hoping we wont get anything new soon...

 

[clayj]

What were the issues the users were having? For end users "my Blackberry isn't working right with Outlook" says a lot, for me it says nothing!

I know of a few issues we have had, mostly with deleted mails not being deleted on the blackberry, but in most cased ive found if the blackberry is set up the right way and the user is restricted from making changes there are no problems.

What was the user groups size of your BES? Were still under 20 users and we have almost eliminated support issues... hoping we wont get anything new soon...

I never supported BES... that's the thing. Normally, folks just have an Exchange Server (or 37) and their mailboxes reside on said server(s) and Outlook or Windows Mobile synchronizes just fine.

Then, add BES to the equation... a third-party product written by a company not known for quality software. Result: problems. Problem: Customers didn't realize (or care) that something alien had been introduced into the usual process, and they'd think that there was a problem with Outlook or Windows Mobile... and so they'd call Microsoft. We'd have to tell them that in order to troubleshoot the problem, BES would have to be removed from the equation... and that, of course, was never possible to do.

Your situation is one I've heard many, many times before... "It's all working just fine, except for the occasional synching issue when I delete messages." At some point, I predict the behavior will get worse; with BES, it always does. And that's why I didn't even consider using BES. (Not to mention that my Exchange Server has ONE user... me.)