AHHHH!! People and thier Blackberrys! WHY??!?!?

Could someone please, PLEASE for the love of BOB, tell me what is SOOOOO GREAT about Blackberry phones that you are willing to jump through flaming hoops, pay thousands of dollars, introduce 4 additional hops for your email and maintain an additional server piece just to get your cell phone to sync with your enterprise mail system? Why? WHY? TELL ME WHY?????

So, I guess my question is, why?

If your company issues you a blackberry cell phone and it's able to receive your enterprise email (Exchange, Groupwise ,etc), your I.T. department has done one of two things.

1.) Setup a web account for each and every blackberry phone in your company, and is essentially POPing your email from the corporate server into a web account, hosted by your cell phone provider, that then your phone pulls down at a set interval (1hr I think is defaut). If your network password changes then the someone needs to login to the web account and change the password there also.

2.) Configured a windows server and installed Blackberry Professional/Enterprise Server on it. This server then points to your corporate email server and acts as a middle man. Your I.T. department then configured each and every blackberry user in the enterprise server, then created a separate admin account that has access to every blackberry user's email (full access and send on behalf). Then your I.T. department configured a pass code that is then communicated to the blackberry user. The user then uses that crappy track ball to navigate through the menu system until they find the "Enterprise Activation" . They then enter their email address and the pass code and hopefully email will start to sync.

Let's look at option one a little more in depth. This method uses a service your cellphone provider licenses through blackberry.com called Blackberry Internet Service (BIS). So, your corporate email is being accessed by your cellphone provider and Blackberry then buffered at a server hosted at Blackberry then transferred to your phone. It's free, but a pain in the butt to maintain because of the password thing. You need a password to get into your webmail account then you have to configure the password that connects to your email account, which is also your network account. If your company is anything like mine, you'll be required to change your password every 45 days or so, and when you do, your email to your Blackberry will break. This option will also only sync your main email folder. Just your inbox, no subfolders, no calendar, no contacts, no tasks, etc... Just the root of your inbox.

Diagram:
[Phone] ---> [Blackberry webserver thingy] ---> [corporate email system]

Option two is a little better, but just as convoluted. This option uses a Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) or it's little cousin version called Blackberry Professional Server. It's functionally the same, there are just some limitation with licensing. This method uses a Windows Server with the BES software installed on it. Blackberry recommends that this be the only thing running on the server. Oh and if you are planning on connecting to Exchange server you will need to install the Exchange System Manager or the equivalent Exchange 2007 utility. Then you need to configure each blackberry user in the BES server with an account. You also need to configure a Blackberry Admin account (typically besadmin) that has full access and send on behalf permissions to every blackberry user's email account. Then, you need to create a pass code for each user and send it to their phone. They then have 48 hours (default) to navigate to their enterprise activation option under the wrench menu and enter their email address and their pass code. Then, the phone will start to sync... Hopefully. I've found that more often then not, you will need to turn your phone off and turn it back on again before it will work.

So, at this point this is the mail flow.

[Phone] <----> [RIM Server] <----> [BES] <----> [Email Server]

With this plan, the password thing isn't an issue because of the besadmin account that does all of the emailing back and forth. Aside from all the additional hops your email takes, that besadmin account is a bad idea. One consistent account that has access to everyone's email. Password probably never changes, major security problem.

So you're spending money on a fancy enterprise data plan, spending money on configuring a server, money to maintain that server, money on BES licensing (professional only I think), and adding security holes, and 4 - single points of failure. Good work.

All of this to get email on your Blackberry. Wow.

Now, a windows phone connecting to your Exchange email system

Point your phone at the internet address of your email server. Make sure port 443 is open to your email server (which it probably is because OWA needs it). Done.

Diagram:
[Cell Phone] <----> [Email Server]

No extra cost, syncs everything, it's a push technology so there is no poling time, no dedicated servers, no additional hops, no admin accounts with full access to mailboxes, nothing. Just your phone talking to your email server. Done.

Explain to me again WHY you would want to use a Blackberry? So you can have your choice of 8 gigantic phones running a proprietary operating system that looks like it was developed in 1992? Or is it the ever-failing poor resolution track ball you like? Maybe it's the extra server equipment or the security holes in your network, or maybe it's the increased likelihood of your email being intercepted while it traverses your cellphone provider and blackberry's networks? Maybe you just like to spend money on inferior services that you can get for free? I know, its that you like to rely on two outside companies to send your email to your phone.

Whatever the reason is, I'm sure it's a good one, because it's impossible to pry a Blackberry out of the hand of a Blackberry user. It's kind if like the iPhone I guess. Heck at least the iPhone supports active sync.

One final note, if your cell service on your windows phone goes away and your phone supports 802.X wireless, your active sync will still work. Not the case with BES. Also, there are 41 Windows phones available compared to Blackberry's 8.