Full FeedWas giving GMail Push for iPhone a bad move for Windows Mobile?
The big news today is that finally, Google has push email and push calendar updates for the iPhone and other smartphones that can use the Exchange protocol. Users can now have their inboxes and calendars always up the the second they are updated thanks to a license to use the technology from Microsoft. I’ve got to wonder though, is MS giving away the farm on this?
The Microsoft Exchange protocol is extremely stable and reliable. Windows Mobile phones have had this benefit for years, but recently, Microsoft began licensing the tech to companies that wanted to attract corporate market share. Another way to read that is companies came to Microsoft to license the tech to steal business from Windows Mobile. And Microsoft says, “Here are the keys to the castle.”
Was it short-term thinking on Microsoft’s part? Take the cash now for the license, make your competitors pay you? Could they have been thinking, “Hey if this whole WinMo train wreck doesn’t turn around, we can still sell software, you know, our core competency?”
I am not alone in this thinking. Kevin Tofel over at jkOnTheRun agrees, “I know I’ve said this before, but what’s interesting to me is that Google Sync uses the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol to make the magic happen. A primary differentiator and advantage that Windows Mobile devices used to enjoy in the early days was this rock-solid sync method. Now that Microsoft has licensed it away to several phone platforms, that advantage is lost….I still find it bad for the Windows Mobile platform as a whole — it requires Microsoft to deliver another “killer feature” for WinMo.”
Today, iPhone users not using Exchange for work are thrilled, I am sure. For those of us that do pull email and calendaring from our corporate exchange servers are left out wishing the iPhone could handle more than one profile for these functions.
Read [Google] via [jkOnTheRun]
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Take a look at the flipside of the coin. WinMo isn’t getting a lot of press (except for the versions that are yet to hit the street). Microsoft’s is more interested in corporate networks and server markets. This move just solidifies Exchange’s position in the marketplace of mail servers. I’m sure they did the math and felt this was a solid move.
on September 22, 2009 at 03:35 PM - LINKoverstressed. Good point. It will be interesting to see what the rumor pink consumer phones do and how much MS pours into them.
I also neglected to mention maybe MS saw this as a way to stop Google from getting into that business too.
on September 22, 2009 at 03:45 PM - LINKGood news. It would be nice to be able to setup more than one Exchange Account since I already have my work account setup in Exchange
on September 22, 2009 at 05:44 PM - LINK