When will POCKET PC incorporate wireless email "blackberry" technology into the handheld?

[HOLLYWOOD_]

My Pocket PC seems to do everything EXCEPT keep me "always" connected to email. Will new pocket pc's offer this functionality?? I carry both on my belt - pocket PC and blackberry.

Wireless e-mail
The one thing that the RIM 957 does better than any other device we've seen so far is work with corporate e-mail accounts. Our review unit came with the BlackBerry Exchange Edition desktop software and service. With this software, there's no need to set up a separate wireless e-mail address if you are currently using Microsoft Outlook. An e-mail redirector program running on your desktop will forward incoming e-mail to the handheld. It took less than a minute for a new e-mail from our in-box to arrive at the handheld. And the BlackBerry service, which delivers e-mail to the handheld, has nationwide coverage, so no matter how far you wander, you should always be able to get your mail. If you don't use Outlook, another version--the BlackBerry Internet Edition, which comes with a separate e-mail address for the handheld--is also available.

http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-2709830-405-1488962-1.html?tag=rating

[HOLLYWOOD_]

One more thing - I want to do this with a device that is not bulky and doesn't have some giant antenna sticking out of it !!!! A slim sleek device like the V35 with this functionality would be ideal.

[ThomasC22]

Pure speculation but yes, I would expect to see "Push" email in the next PocketPC client. My logic is that it is included in the new Smartphone 2002 platform and Derek Brown of Microsoft said in a Brighthand thread a while back that we would see many of the Smartphone 2002 technologies incorporated into the next version of the PocketPC.

That said, the current PPC2K2 Phone Edition took a while to come out after the regular so I don't know when we might see a new Phone Edition (well lets be honest, I don't really know when we'll see a new PPCOS either!)

[sweetpete]

Infowave's SymmetryPro does much of what your Blackberry with the Exchange service desktop edition does, and it does it better. Again, no need to set up a separate email address either.
It integrates directly into Pocket Inbox ans also has their own custom ActiveSync agent that syncs with Outlook. Plus, you can view attachments wirelessly for Word, Excel, Acrobat, and other file types that have viewers for the PPC (something you can't do easily with the RIM, though I've heard of some add-on services that will give you a view).

The thing that is lacking (for now) is exactly what you want, and that is "Push" email. It does do it for Palm through the use of an SMS side channel alert, but I believe it has been held up on PPC. My contact with their support guys said they are beta testing it for PPCPE and it will be out in the January time frame. The biggest issue was there was no integrated SMS client in the PPC 2002 OS, but there is with PPC-PE.

For now, you can use a scheduled "Pull" check. It's not too bad as it's configurable (down to 15 minutes).

If you really want to use your PPC to check corporate Exchange email, this is THE way to do it. Only costs $12.95 /month or $100/yr.