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iPhone Corportate E-Mail (Exchange Support)

D

DSchwartz88

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 18, 2006
419
0
Hey Guys,

I just wanted to give you all a heads up. Apple is out and about testing exchange abilities ala blackberry. How do i know this? Well lets just say i work at a certain company where a certain boss of mine got invited to be part of this testing. Beleive me or not, i really could care less, but for the people willing to listen at least now people apple is testing it. Remember i never said apple will release it or gave a date, all i know is that exchange will be possible without 3rd party intervention.

Daniel

EDIT: In response to BryanLyle, this is what im talking about. Im not talking about IMAP support. Im talking about full access to exchange servers the normal way. This is push e-mail im talking about.
 
Exchange Support Seems Likely

When you add an e-mail account in the "other" category, the top of the screen has a set of three e-mail-type selection buttons, IMAP, POP and Exchange. It would seem obvious from this that Apple plans to support Exchange configurations separate from IMAP.
 
DSchwartz88 said:
Hey Guys,

I just wanted to give you all a heads up. Apple is out and about testing exchange abilities ala blackberry. How do i know this? Well lets just say i work at a certain company where a certain boss of mine got invited to be part of this testing. Beleive me or not, i really could care less, but for the people willing to listen at least now people apple is testing it. Remember i never said apple will release it or gave a date, all i know is that exchange will be possible without 3rd party intervention.

Daniel

EDIT: In response to BryanLyle, this is what im talking about. Im not talking about IMAP support. Im talking about full access to exchange servers the normal way. This is push e-mail im talking about.
Click to expand...

:cool:
 
Daniel,

Have you heard/seen whether the corporate support that is in testing also covers the sync of the calendar and contacts? While you're at it, do you know if, when creating an e-mail, you can access the GAL (global address list)?

This is the main thing holding me back from buying an iPhone right now. I carry a Blackberry today, but would drop it in a heartbeat if the iPhone had support for "real" corporate email, GAL, calendar and contacts.

Thanks in advance!

:cool:

--DotComCTO
 
No subway in this story? No subway or elevator and I'm highly, highly skeptical.
 
rdowns said:
No subway in this story? No subway or elevator and I'm highly, highly skeptical.
Click to expand...

I take everything with a grain of salt; however, Steve Jobs was quoted as saying that Apple is testing full corporate support with some major corporations that have very recognizable names. This doesn't seem like the, "subway/elevator Apple/AT&T rep" type story to me since it was announced that Apple is doing this.

--DotComCTO
 
DotComCTO said:
I take everything with a grain of salt; however, Steve Jobs was quoted as saying that Apple is testing full corporate support with some major corporations that have very recognizable names. This doesn't seem like the, "subway/elevator Apple/AT&T rep" type story to me since it was announced that Apple is doing this.

--DotComCTO
Click to expand...

As do I. I was being facetious. The iPhone has quite a few short comings and I fully expect Apple to address most, if not all, of them through software updates.

I can see their marketing hype already. iPhone, the first phone to have new features added without having to buy a new one. :cool:
 
rdowns said:
As do I. I was being facetious. The iPhone has quite a few short comings and I fully expect Apple to address most, if not all, of them through software updates.
Click to expand...

It's taking a lot of effort for me to hold off on buying one. I was in a local AT&T store this weekend and they had them back in stock. I was soooo tempted, but I *have* to see Apple release the update for corporate integration first. I really, really don't want to carry two devices!

Having said that...I still may cave in shortly and cross my fingers!

:D

--DotComCTO
 
In response to an earlier post, GAL support would have to be included as my boss (or anyone for that matter) wouldn’t be able to lookup names to send e-mails to, and i know GAL support is a big function he needs. From what i am hearing (he doesn’t have his device yet) it will be pushed from the server with GAL access and remote calendar updates similar to blackberrys. I will let you know more once he receives his *complimentary" device from apple (i find it annoying i had to buy one and he doesn’t).
 
DSchwartz88 said:
In response to an earlier post, GAL support would have to be included as my boss (or anyone for that matter) wouldn’t be able to lookup names to send e-mails to, and i know GAL support is a big function he needs. From what i am hearing (he doesn’t have his device yet) it will be pushed from the server with GAL access and remote calendar updates similar to blackberrys. I will let you know more once he receives his *complimentary" device from apple (i find it annoying i had to buy one and he doesn’t).
Click to expand...

As great as this will be for the iPhone to add true Exchange support, IMHO it will further highlight the lack of a thumb keyboard like the Blackberry.
 
DSchwartz88 said:
In response to an earlier post, GAL support would have to be included as my boss (or anyone for that matter) wouldn’t be able to lookup names to send e-mails to, and i know GAL support is a big function he needs. From what i am hearing (he doesn’t have his device yet) it will be pushed from the server with GAL access and remote calendar updates similar to blackberrys. I will let you know more once he receives his *complimentary" device from apple (i find it annoying i had to buy one and he doesn’t).
Click to expand...

Daniel,

I should explain why I asked about GAL support. Though it would seem obvious that Apple should/would properly support this, the implementation in Entourage isn't well done. If you connect to your Exchange server via OWA and don't have a public LDAP server, then Entourage makes you download the GAL and put them into your contacts. Obviously, that would be unbelievably dumb on an iPhone; however, I would like to know for sure from someone that sees it first hand.

Also - the sync of calendar *and* contacts is super important. I am also curious whether the new, improved iPhone calendar supports things like recurring meetings, looking at free/busy times, etc.

Do let us know when your boss get his test iPhone.

Thanks again for the info!

--DotComCTO
 
What he said. ^^
 

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While full exchange integration will be nice with syncing calendar, syncing contacts and push e-mail. I will say, I use the iphone to run my computer consulting business, and I am using it with the exchange imap setup. I really do not see much difference from my old blackjack config. If you are waiting to get the iphone due to lack of push feature, wait no longer, it isnt that big of difference, even in the business world.
 
agirton said:
While full exchange integration will be nice with syncing calendar, syncing contacts and push e-mail. I will say, I use the iphone to run my computer consulting business, and I am using it with the exchange imap setup. I really do not see much difference from my old blackjack config. If you are waiting to get the iphone due to lack of push feature, wait no longer, it isnt that big of difference, even in the business world.
Click to expand...

I'm glad that you are satisified with the Exchange and IMAP solution; however, you are completely wrong in making the blanket statement, "...it isnt that big of difference, even in the business world." I can see part of your point if say, you're in Sales and your primary needs are a cell phone an access to corporate e-mail; however, that's not the case for a lot of other folks.

For example, on my IT team, we need to get e-mail pushed to our devices. It so happens that we use SMS and e-mail alerts to let us know if certain systems are up and running. It would be insane if we waited 15 minutes (the iPhone's minimum automated time to check e-mail) to get alerted to a particular issue.

In my particular role - and the role of most execs in my company - we find ourselves in numerous meetings. A lot of meetings get called for the same day. Having a calendar that syncs via push is also quite important.

While having personal contacts sync via push is also a great nice-to-have, it is absolutely important that we be able to access to Global Address List (GAL) remotely. I have no plans to import hundreds of employees to my iPhone just so I can e-mail or call them.

Perhaps your personal situation is different, and it's great that the iPhone works just fine out-of-the-box for you. I sincerely doubt that it is OK for most businesses. If that were true, people wouldn't be clamoring for the support, and Apple wouldn't be working on corporate integration.

--DotComCTO
 
This is exactly what I'm waiting on.
Click to expand...
I didn't wait, and as a result am carrying my iPhone and a work-provided Blackberry. But every attorney at my firm that has seen the iPhone has expressed a desire to buy one -- if they replace their Blackberry. I think that getting this to work will open up a huge amount of new sales. (And, more importantly, simplify my life).
 
DotComCTO said:
I'm glad that you are satisified with the Exchange and IMAP solution; however, you are completely wrong in making the blanket statement, "...it isnt that big of difference, even in the business world." I can see part of your point if say, you're in Sales and your primary needs are a cell phone an access to corporate e-mail; however, that's not the case for a lot of other folks.

For example, on my IT team, we need to get e-mail pushed to our devices. It so happens that we use SMS and e-mail alerts to let us know if certain systems are up and running. It would be insane if we waited 15 minutes (the iPhone's minimum automated time to check e-mail) to get alerted to a particular issue.

In my particular role - and the role of most execs in my company - we find ourselves in numerous meetings. A lot of meetings get called for the same day. Having a calendar that syncs via push is also quite important.

While having personal contacts sync via push is also a great nice-to-have, it is absolutely important that we be able to access to Global Address List (GAL) remotely. I have no plans to import hundreds of employees to my iPhone just so I can e-mail or call them.

Perhaps your personal situation is different, and it's great that the iPhone works just fine out-of-the-box for you. I sincerely doubt that it is OK for most businesses. If that were true, people wouldn't be clamoring for the support, and Apple wouldn't be working on corporate integration.

--DotComCTO
Click to expand...

If it were as dire as you state, it would have been included at launch and it would have affected the launch in a negative way by not being in it.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=18539

http://yahoo.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/phones/2007-07-12-iphone_N.htm?csp=1
 
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