Feeling much better now
by Volker Weber
There was something that bothered my about last week's Microsoft presentations. I could not really name it, but now I figured it out: you don't have to tell me that you are leading in market share every few minutes. You are Microsoft. Hey, we know you. Just tell us what you have been up to lately. What is new, what is exciting?
And also don't try to paint weak points into strong points. It is not a good thing that you don't have any middleware between your Exchange server and the handheld. You are missing tons of useful features. For instance an attachment server, that transcodes huge Powerpoint files into something that can be consumed on a handheld without scaling it down. This not only saves on transfer cost, but also on processor, device memory, battery life and what not. You also have to poll your server time and again, since nobody knows your handheld's IP address. It really is kind of hard to "push" stuff to somebody who is invisible. RIM did not really invent all this stuff, because nobody needs it.
Case in point: ActiveSync drained the battery of the Treo 750v from 100% in the morning to 51% in the evening. BlackBerry Connect only wore it down to 76%.
Comments
Volker, do you think some level of built-in mobile device connectivity would be good or bad for Domino? Right now it's 100% third party, as you know, and that can be a barrier to entry.
Charles, I think it would be good. The mobile carriers are pushing data on their networks. It is their only chance for growth, since revenue from voice calls are on the decline. And the carriers don't necessarily like to be controlled by RIM. Pushing Exchange makes a lot of sense to them, both as hosted and customer scenarios. MS has played this game nicely, and Nokia was smart enough to license ActiveSync.
Makes sense, thanks for clarifying that for me. :) I have heard rumors that soon to be released version of Domino will come with something bundled, so perhaps this is the kinder gentler Lotus coming forward.
Isn't NTP going after Microsoft for their "push" technology. I guess IBM will have their (patent) lawyers scrutinize anything that might invite NTP and rather not release it.
;-) stw
