The combination of an upcoming feature pack for Windows Mobile (WM) 5.0—Microsoft's newest version of its OS platform for Pocket PCs (PPCs) and Smartphones—and the upcoming Service Pack 2 for Exchange Server 2003 will significantly improve Microsoft's e-mail solution for Windows Mobile devices. The enhancements will address user complaints that the Microsoft solution is still inferior to that of competitor Research in Motion (RIM) and its BlackBerry devices. However, to get these improvements users will have to buy new WM 5.0 devices, which will only begin shipping in the third quarter of 2005.

(For details on the WM 5.0 platform, see "Windows Mobile 5.0 Points the Way to Device Convergence".)

Current Approach Not Ideal

Many users, especially business users, want e-mail and calendar items on their mobile devices to stay synchronized within a few minutes with the corresponding items on their e-mail server.

Using the built-in ActiveSync utility, Windows Mobile devices (PPCs and Smartphones) can periodically initiate a wireless data connection to the Internet and poll the Exchange server for new items. However, this polling approach has two problems: polling intervals can be no shorter than five minutes, and each poll creates a fair amount of network traffic—very undesirable for users with data plans that charge by the amount of data they transfer.

A better approach is e-mail push, in which the Exchange server initiates synchronization with a user's device whenever new items come into the user's mailbox on the server. RIM has always supported e-mail push to its BlackBerry handheld devices and cell phones—one reason why it's been widely recognized as the best wireless e-mail solution.

Because today's Windows Mobile devices cannot automatically maintain open wireless WAN data connections all the time, and because the Pocket Outlook program is a client, not a mail server, Exchange servers can't send new items directly to devices, since no background process is "listening" for incoming items. With Windows Mobile 2003, Microsoft created a stopgap solution called Always Up To Date (AUTD), which configures the Exchange server to send a Short Message Service (SMS) message to the device telling it that the user has new items awaiting delivery. (Unlike wireless WAN data connections, SMS messages are sent over a cellular control channel that is always on whenever the device is within range of a digital service tower.) On the Windows Mobile 2003 device, ActiveSync intercepts these messages and triggers the device to bring up a data connection and retrieve the messages.

However, AUTD is still suboptimal because many carriers charge for each SMS message sent, and because SMS messages are not always reliable and can be subject to long delays.

True E-Mail Push Coming

This situation will change with new Direct Push Technology (DPT) in WM 5.0.

DPT takes advantage of a new WM 5.0 feature called Smart Connect that, among other things, allows devices to automatically maintain a data connection whenever they are in range of a cell tower. This enables the DPT feature in ActiveSync 4.0 (the latest version) running on a WM 5.0 device to continuously maintain an open Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request for new mailbox items from the Exchange server. This connection passes very little data, except when sending or retrieving new items. As long as the wireless connection is up, users get their new items immediately. If the connection is dropped, such as when the user takes a voice call, Smart Connect and ActiveSync 4.0 automatically reestablish the connection to the Exchange server as soon as possible.

ActiveSync 4.0 also supports wireless synchronization of Exchange task items, a feature missing on earlier versions. Furthermore, it will use compression to reduce network traffic and improve performance: Microsoft claims ActiveSync 4.0 will require 35% to 50% less network bandwidth than the current solution.

Although Microsoft's DPT uses a technical approach different from RIM, Microsoft claims that the results are roughly the same in terms of latency and bytes transmitted over the wireless WAN. It will also be markedly less expensive. Unlike the RIM solution, the Microsoft solution does not require any additional servers at the organization's data center or additional services provided by the mobile operator.

To get DPT, organizations must install Exchange 2003 SP2 on each Exchange server that provides ActiveSync services to devices and the free Windows Mobile 5.0 Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP) on each device. Both will be released at about the same time in the second half of 2005.

Because Microsoft has licensed the Exchange ActiveSync protocol to DataViz, Motorola, Nokia, palmOne, and Symbian, manufacturers of wireless devices based on technologies from these vendors will be able to build non-Windows-Mobile devices that also support DPT with Exchange.

Address List Access from Mobile Devices

Another major shortcoming of Pocket Outlook on today's Windows Mobile devices solution will be fixed in the MSFP.

Although today's users have access to their Outlook Contact entries when addressing e-mail messages on their device, they do not have access to their organization's Global Address List (GAL). This creates a serious problem unless the user happens to have a corresponding contact entry for each addressee or remembers the address and enters it manually.

The MSFP adds a new GAL look-up feature that's integrated throughout the messaging, phone, calendar, and contacts pages of the Outlook Mobile user interface. However, unlike the PC version of Outlook, which can be configured to download and synchronize a local copy of the GAL, the MSFP solution looks up GAL information over the wireless connection. This means that Outlook Mobile users won't be able to address e-mail this way when working offline.

Resources

WM 5.0 MSFP information can be found at www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/business/5.

The new mobility features coming in Exchange Server 2003 SP2 are described at www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2003/sp2mobility.mspx.