The first release of the iPhone left many Microsoft Exchange users unhappy. They hear about this new cool device and run out and buy one.. then find out.. I PAID WHAT?..AND IT ONLY SYNCS MY EMAIL? Yeah ..kind of depressing if you have had a Blackberry, Windows Mobile or PalmOS phone with wireless syncing of your Outlook data; It’s like taking 5 steps back in time technology wise and renders it almost useless for business people.

NOW the good news! Apple listened and responded quickly to customer demand. The release of the new 3G iPhone now incorporates the ability to sync your email, calendar, and contacts wirelessly between your iPhone and your Exchange Mailbox.

It is important to understand what each device can wirelessly sync if you are considering moving from a Blackberry, Windows Mobile, or PalmOS device to an iPhone. Here is a quick cheat sheet below and they all assume you are using the device with an enterprise grade email system like Hosted Exchange.

1. iPhone – syncs email, calendar and contacts
2. Blackberry (using Blackbery Enterprise Server) – syncs email, calendar, contacts, tasks and notes
3. Windows Mobile – syncs email, calendar, contacts and tasks
4. PalmOS (using Good Server) – syncs email, calendar, contacts, tasks and notes

We have also heard that AT&T is offering some attractive upgrade options for people who paid a small fortune for the first model. For existing Link2Exchange customers who want to configure their Exchange Mailbox to their new 3G iPhone for wireless syncing please refer to our knowledgebase article below.

NOTE: The iPhone has to be the newer 3G model to support this feature. First version iPhones only support email syncing.

3G iPhone Exchange Settings – Once you go to this page be sure to enter your link2exchange email address into the box at the top and click customize. This will customize the instructions for your mailbox.

Now Microsoft Exchange enters the world and it is so easy and makes so much sense people are not only asking for it by name they are even willing to pay for an email account (and it’s worth the money) – man how times have changed!  So what does Microsoft Exchange do that is so revolutionary?  I will try to explain this is non-technical terms so that everyone can be enlightened instead of just the techie people. Microsoft Exchange was designed from the ground up to work with Microsoft Outlook. Outlook is the email and communication program in the Microsoft Office Suite. With an exchange server every person in your company has their own mailbox. All the employees’ mailboxes are stored under your company domain name like abc.com for security purposes. On an exchange server your Outlook has a copy of all your data on the pc you are using but Outlook also mirrors that data in real-time to the Microsoft exchange server. Now since everyone’s Outlook data is stored on the exchange server and in outlook then now everyone has the ability to share their outlook data with co-workers as well as access all of their outlook data from any computer connected to the internet.

Now take that same scenario of me working from 2 pc’s one at the office and one at home but now using Exchange with Outlook. As I sit in the office all day managing emails, storing them in folders, updating contacts and appointments Outlook is sending those changes to the exchange server in real time. I can now at the end of the day shut down my office computer and head home. Now I open Outlook on my home pc and the first thing Outlook does is look at my mailbox on the exchange server to see what has changed since the last time it logged on. Then within minutes I am looking at all the same data in outlook as was on my office pc – all the folders are identical email, calendar, contacts, tasks and notes. 

So in essence POP accounts manage email in a very limited fashion (I guess you really do get what you pay for) while Exchange stores all your Outlook data securely on the internet so it can be synchronized with Outlook on multiple computers and PDA phones in real time. Exchange also opens up the ability for you and your co-workers to share and manipulate each other’s Outlook data like calendars, contacts, tasks, notes and email.

If you are still working in the world of POP email you should explore some hosted exchange providers like us – Link2Exchange. 

Many hosted providers like us have 30 day free trials so what have you got to lose?