News & Updates

7/11/2008 by Tela Andrews. Source: Exchange3g.com

Apple released its new iPhone 3g, or iPhone 2.0, on Thursday July  10th to a lot of hype from targeted at consumers. News coverage ranged from the long lines at Apple Store locations to issues that early adopters had with activating their new iphone3g. However, the one story that has slipped under the radar is the benefits of this great smartphone for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and even for active families on the go.

The big story should have the fact that the new iphone supports Microsoft Activesync, which allows the iPhone to seamlessly interact with the Microsoft Exchange Server. Exchange is the premier email sharing and calendar sharing collaborative software. The Blackberry has enabled this for a long time, but it requires an extra set of software (with extra costs for the server, and the need for trained IT people to manage this). The iPhone doesn’t need this extra set of software.

For a small business this can really help with productivity. You can quickly coordinate meetings by checking your staff’s schedule and then sending meeting requests. Your contacts (or you staff’s, if you are a small business owner), are backed up on the server, as are their emails.  If a phone or computer gets lost, all of the information is saved on the server and can be active on a replacement device in just a few minutes.

Now, the story about the benefits for small businesses has gotten a little coverage. What nobody has been talking about are the benefits for active families. If you have two or three teenagers and are trying to keep track of school events, sports and their social life, what is the answer? If each teen has an iPhone, you can check their schedule in an instant, and they can notify you if soccer practice will be getting out an hour late, for example. The iPhone is perfect the perfect smartphone for teens, and for their parents.

The iPhone2 is also completely compatible across platforms: It works with Microsoft Outlook on the PC, or with Microsoft Entourage (part of the Microsoft Office package for Macs). If you update your calendar, or send a message from your desktop email program, your new iphone will automatically be updated.

So, there has to be a catch, right? The catch is that it is complicated and expensive to setup Microsoft Exchange. You need a dedicated server in a professional data center, not to mention paying for the required licensing or addressing security issues. Exchange really needs to be run by trained professionals.

The good news is that services such as Exchange3G have been created that specialize in providing hosted iPhone Exchange Server services on a subscription basis. This is the simplest, easiest and most cost-effective way for small companies or busy families to get the full benefit of their new iphones.