When the iPhone came out, I was excited to buy it. I have an older model Blackberry, about 3 years old with TMobile which can't even use the Edge network (only GPRS), but which works great with MS Exchange for syncing my email, contacts, cal, etc. But after reading discussion groups, I decided to hold off, primarily because of email and syncing issues. I run a small business, and use a blackberry for work, and would be buying an iPhone to replace it. Given all the negative talk on this and other boards about the email issues, and that the iPhone isn't capable of using MS Exchange, I decided to stick with my blackberry for now.
However, I recently had lunch with a business colleague who has his iPhone setup for his business (and is in a similiar line of work to my own, with the same email/cal/contacts needs). He bought an iPhone to replace his Treo and was extremely happy.
First, he showed me that you can file emails into folders (a very important feature for me), per IMAP, and those emails will be synced with your desktop. Second, I was concerned that the iPhone doesn't receive Push email. Well, he showed me that whenever you open your MAIL program, the iPhone then automatically checks for new messages (in addition to the usual checks it does every 15 mins or so). Which, to me, seems awfully close to me opening the mail program on my blackberry to see the new messages I have. Yes, there's an additional wait for those messages to show up, but on his iPhone, that seemed to be seconds rather than minutes.
I do wish that contacts and calendar synced instantly and wirelessly as well. That's a problem for when my assistant is adding meetings to my calendar, as they won't show up on my iPhone until I physically sync the iPhone again (unless someone knows of a workaround...anyone?).
Given all of the other things the iPhone can clearly do better than my blackberry (photos, safari, etc etc.), I'm now tempted to pick up an iPhone. My biggest concern (in addition to the lost of true PUSH email and MS Exchange Sync) is saying goodbye to Tmobile and their great service, and hello to ATT and their mediocre service, and poor international plans.
I'm curious if anyone else here faced a similiar dilemma. What did you do? What do you advise? And, am I incorrect about any of the above iPhone capabilities? Oh, and is anyone using a third party provider (like www.exchangemymail.com) they would recommend for syncing their iPhone/Desktop email programs?
Many thanks as always. This board is amazingly helpful.
However, I recently had lunch with a business colleague who has his iPhone setup for his business (and is in a similiar line of work to my own, with the same email/cal/contacts needs). He bought an iPhone to replace his Treo and was extremely happy.
First, he showed me that you can file emails into folders (a very important feature for me), per IMAP, and those emails will be synced with your desktop. Second, I was concerned that the iPhone doesn't receive Push email. Well, he showed me that whenever you open your MAIL program, the iPhone then automatically checks for new messages (in addition to the usual checks it does every 15 mins or so). Which, to me, seems awfully close to me opening the mail program on my blackberry to see the new messages I have. Yes, there's an additional wait for those messages to show up, but on his iPhone, that seemed to be seconds rather than minutes.
I do wish that contacts and calendar synced instantly and wirelessly as well. That's a problem for when my assistant is adding meetings to my calendar, as they won't show up on my iPhone until I physically sync the iPhone again (unless someone knows of a workaround...anyone?).
Given all of the other things the iPhone can clearly do better than my blackberry (photos, safari, etc etc.), I'm now tempted to pick up an iPhone. My biggest concern (in addition to the lost of true PUSH email and MS Exchange Sync) is saying goodbye to Tmobile and their great service, and hello to ATT and their mediocre service, and poor international plans.
I'm curious if anyone else here faced a similiar dilemma. What did you do? What do you advise? And, am I incorrect about any of the above iPhone capabilities? Oh, and is anyone using a third party provider (like www.exchangemymail.com) they would recommend for syncing their iPhone/Desktop email programs?
Many thanks as always. This board is amazingly helpful.
