E-mail with Voq Professional Phone

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.voq.com/site/explore/email.voq

"Your clients. Your colleagues. Your Boss. Everyone expects you to be available and responsive, wherever you are. That means being in touch and connected to the latest information, always. Your e-mail inbox is full of important information. You use it to read and share messages, and stay on top of issues. When you step away from your desk, you're disconnected from your e-mail. You never know what's going to be waiting for you when you next log in. E-mail should be simple, even when your life is not.

The Voq professional phone provides outstanding voice and data capabilities for the mobile professional. VoqMail software adds low-cost, low-bandwidth, Always-there™ e-mail, delivering the best e-mail experience on a phone. You can even wirelessly synchronize your Calendar and Contacts to Microsoft® Exchange 2003."

So, any speculation as to how they've cooked this up? If it's based on IMAP, I wonder if it's an ultra-low bandwidth ping to an IMAP account to see if there are any new messages. Or something more sophisticated?

Source: MTekk

[Mike Temporale]

Exchange Server 2003 offers Push technology of some sort. I'm not sure of the details, and all of my exchange friends haven't worked with it yet. My understanding is that it sends a specially formated SMS which tells the phone to connect and download.

Since the clipping mentions Exchange 2003 specifically, I think this is what they are doing. Just a guess on my part.
_________________
Want a Chance to Win? Check out our Gigantic Giveaway Event
"I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious" - Albert Einstein

[Kris Kumar]

I believe the implementation would be similar to what Verizon has for its i600 customers. I am not a Verizon customer, this is what I have heard about their implementation. Someone can verify it.

There will be special Desktop Redirector sitting on your work/desktop PC, keeping tabs with your Exchange server. And this Desktop Redirector will have an HTTPS pipe (thru the company firewall) to the Verizon (or Voq) internet server.

The handset also has special software (proxy) which fools the ActiveSync client on the Smartphone to think that there is an Microsoft Information Server (or Exchange Server with Outlook Web Access).

So this is what the user experience will be like. On the phone, the user sets up ActiveSync using Exchange Server option. The ActiveSync client will use the Verizon software (proxy) on the phone to talk to the Verizon Server. The Verizon server, since it is in touch with your Desktop PC thru the Desktop Redirector, will get the latest mails. Bottomline it will be using ActiveSync for emails. This means on SP 2003, you can have the ActiveSync connection for work mails and use the POP3/IMAP setup for downloading mails from your other accounts.

ActiveSync on the phone -> Special Software -> Verizon Server <- Desktop <-> Exchange

Kris

[Kris Kumar]

I just saw a demo of how the Verizon Mail Sync works.

Verizon has done a terrific job.

Traditionally when you use IR or USB, this is what happens.

Smartphone ActiveSync <---usb/ir---> Desktop ActiveSync

Now with Verizon and possibly Voq Smartphone, this is what will happen when you use ActiveSync.

Smartphone ActiveSync <---( Verizon ActiveSync Layer ) --> Desktop ActiveSync

The Verizon ActiveSync Layer can be broken into the following components.

Verizon Client on Phone <--Internet--> Verizon Server <--Internet--> Verizon Client on Desktop

Hope I am making sense...its a neat setup.

Kris

[Talldog]

So, does this mean it's official that the Voq will do email only through the desktop (i.e. if your PC is shut down, you have no access to corporate mail)?

[Kris Kumar]

I was explaining how Verizon has implemented it, and it needs a dedicated desktop pc.

And most carriers do it using desktop pc. NOT sure on how Voq has it implemented. Sorry if I confused you. They talk about Personal Edition and Professional Edition. And Personal Edition sounds to me like the basic SP 2003 capability, no fancy redirector stuff. Professional Edition will require some kind of desktop pc (or internet based enterprise messaging server).

RIM is the only one with the Enterprise Server for handling all devices.

Kris