Ferris: Windows Mobile 5 — Microsoft’s Push Email Offering Is Maturing

At the 3GSM World Congress, Microsoft announcedthat several new Windows Mobile 5 (WM5) devices would ship with the Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP) installed. The MSFP allows push email from a Microsoft Exchange 2003 server to a Windows Mobile 5 device.

Microsoft’s mobile email solution has some advantages over BlackBerry and other push email solutions:

• There is no need for an additional server to push email to devices.
• There is no requirement to purchase Client Access Licenses (CALs) for each device.
• Since it’s a single vendor solution — including the Exchange infrastructure itself — product support should be more consistent (there’s “one throat to choke” when something goes wrong).