BlackBerry Inside Windows Mobile

Until a couple of weeks ago, I was a BlackBerry user--then I switched to a Palm Treo 750 running Windows Mobile. Both devices have their advantages--and now it looks like we may get the best of both worlds.

BlackBerry manufacturer RIM announced yesterday that it's working on software that would essentially turn Windows Mobile 6-based devices into BlackBerries. In other words, folks who ran this software on a WM6 phone would get versions of the BlackBerry e-mail, calendar, and other applications, and could sync wirelessly with their companies' BlackBerry servers.

The details here are still sketchy, but if the BB-on-Windows apps do the job well, it could be a boon to anyone who works in a company that's standardized on BlackBerries but who wants a wider range of handsets to choose from. (There are already plenty of ways to get BlackBerry-style functionality on a Windows phone, including Microsoft's own mobile push server software for Exchange and Good Technology's server and client applications.)

All in all, I don't think this'll be that huge a deal--in part because RIM already released a software/service package called BlackBerry Connect that lets non-BlackBerries connect to the BlackBerry service, and it doesn't seem to have changed the world. (The Windows Mobile version isn't offered by any U.S. carrier that I know of; the Palm OS one is available for Palm-based Treos from Cingular.)

But maybe I'll be surprised--and I assume that RIM thinks it can sell more server software and service if its stuff works with any BlackBerry and any Windows Mobile phone.

And I might be interested in it myself, if it lets me get my PC World Lotus Notes e-mail and calendar with BlackBerry-like rock-solid reliability on my Treo 750. (At the moment, I'm using Cingular's XpressMail to do the job, and I'm never quite sure whether it's actually going to work or not.)

Comments

You can use emoze.com and it will sync everything for you with any Win Mobile Phone

THEHNIC

April 24, 2007

4:39 PM PT