4iPhone, 4smartphone and MobileMe Exchange solutions

With the launch of the 3G iPhone and the firmware 2.0 update, one of the major new features will be the ability to get push email, push contacts and agenda over the air. As a Windows Mobile and iPhone user for me this is great news as I have been using Exchange 2007 with Windows Mobile for a long time now and it is a brilliant way to manage your PIM data.

Apple have also released MobileMe so it is all getting a little confusing with which service to go for. Well luckily 4smartphone have done a comparison write up so you can make a more informed decision and it pretty much sums things up fairly.

The differences between 4iPhone and MobileMe

Based on what has been published about MobileME so far, below is a comparison between an existing service and one that is not released as of yet.

MobileME will most likely work very well for the Apple-centric consumer, that might also use a Windows PC from time to time, but for most small business users the “Exchange for the rest of us” is simply not enough, and they need the real thing, the “real Exchange”, but without the complexity and the hassle, without an IT/Exchange guy on staff, and without owning servers.

For those small businesses of “1 to 100” people, 4SmartPhone/4iPhone, backed by Exchange 2007, is the “real thing” and the solution that meets their requirements for the Mac, Windows PC and iPhone, … but also for other smartphones as well. Here are the reasons as to why:

Collaboration tools:
Business users need to communicate and share information seamlessly. They also need control over what is shared, how and with who. Because of Exchange 2007, 4SmartPhone offers to any users the capability to share contacts, calendars, even email folders. This sharing is available to all 4SmartPhone users, whether on a PC or a Mac. MobileME only offers photo sharing, which is in most cases not a business requirement, and besides there are plenty of alternatives (Flickr, …) most of them free to do so.
Custom domain and email:
While the casual user might be happy with using [email protected] as his primary email address, most business users find that simply unacceptable and require their own domain. 4iPhone enables customers to use their own email domain, even if they do not have the entire company on 4iPhone and are still using a separate email server. Furthermore, 4iPhone allows customers to use their own email addresses even if they do not own or control their domain at all. MobileME offers only @me.com and @mac.com email addresses, while 4iPhone allows its customers to use their own email address, whether it is “@theircompany.com”, @gmail.com, @intel.com or even @mac.com (and we do have plenty of .mac users already).
Security and availability:
MobileME is a consumer service. The literature makes no mention of security, availability, backups or SPAM filtering. While we can assume that there is some level of those features available, it is not mentioned because it is not the primary requirement of the audience. 4iPhone on the other hand offers 99.9% availability, daily backups, fully clustered data center with fast SAN storage, free advanced SPAM filtering on every account.
Smartphone support:
MobileME support the iPhone, only the iPhone and nothing else than the iPhone. As good as the iPhone is, it is not the only choice, and for business users it is very likely that not everybody will use an iPhone. Unlike MobileME, 4iPhone/4SmartPhone support virtually any smartphone available on the market today : that includes the iPhone, but also all Windows Mobile devices, most Symbian devices (Nokia, Sony Ericsson, …), and even BlackBerries. We even allow a user to use multiple different devices at once if needed.
Audience:
it is important to note that MobileME is targeting the casual user, while 4iPhone is a branded site for 4SmartPhone which is a service powered by the industry standard Microsoft Exchange 2007, designed for small business users and the so-called “prosumers” which typically have different needs and requirements. While at first glance the features might seem similar, and therefore one might assume that 4iPhone and MobileME as compete services, we rather believe that they are complementary, with little overlap when you look at both from a business perspective.