It’s been quite many years since Blackberry Technology has rule the world with its impeccable, secure and fast messaging technology on mobile devices. Now the industry has changed, with the introduction Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 it seems to me that monopoly of blackberry is over. I have seen several projects where Clients are moving from Blackberry to Windows Mobile services. The BIG question WHY? Simple cost and TCO. Below I am going to discuss the same where I will point out the comparison between both of them.

Cost

 Blackberry:

To incorporate blackberry in a company where they have Microsoft Exchange Server one has to purchase following items

• Blackberry Enterprise Server Software v4.1
• Additional user multiple user accounts ( Pricing )
• Blackberry phone which is on costlier side.
• Cost of GPRS (EDGE technology) by Service Provider as that is the requirement for blackberry to provide speed for email sync.
• Cost of Hardware.
• Cost of qualified tech to manage blackberry.

Note: BES requires SQL database to store data, by default it provides MSDE however it is good for 50 users only. If you have more users then use SQL Server for its database and that is additional cost.

 ActiveSync:

To incorporate Activesync in a company all you need is Microsoft Exchange Server with OWA & OMA published with external URL and https enabled. Apart from this one need to purchase following items.

• No License is required because Exchange mailbox License is good enough
• Purchase certificate to enable https (Cost varies from vendor to vendor) from third party vendor or install your Certificate Authority Server.
• Windows mobile phone starts from cheaper side
• Cost GPRS (one can choose the bandwidth as per data transfer rate with service provider).
• No SQL database is required.
• Enabling ActiveSync does not require any new hardware; it’s a setting in Exchange.
• Exchange Admin is good enough to manage Activesync

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 Security:

 Blackberry: Blackberry uses 3DES encryption for data transfer which is highly secure and near to unbreakable encryption however it is only available when we have Blackberry Enterprise Server setup with messaging application.

ActiveSync: Activesync uses SSL V2 port 443 for data transfer which is again highly secure encryption.

Functionality:

 Blackberry:

• Blackberry Handled device provides option to read documents, spreadsheet, PPT slides and PDF files.
• If you want edit these files there is third party which we need to install on handheld device however it’s not supported by RIM.
• Browsing internet on Blackberry can be a pain if MDS service crashes on BES Server

Windows Mobile Phone:

• It can read, write and edit documents, spreadsheet, PPT slides and pdf files and we can also get support from Microsoft on pocket office.
  Browsing IE is independent of any service on Exchange Server.
  Windows Mobile 6 offers techs the function to connect other machines using RDP installed on the OS
  For more functionality of Windows Mobile click here

Many people can say that Blackberry can be used with other mailing application like Domino. I would say how many people go to Domino today so many Companies are migrating to Microsoft Exchange Server. My overall comments are that I don’t find any good reason to implement blackberry in my environment when I can get everything from Activesync.