Visto, provider of mobile email solutions for business users, today announced the support of corporate email functionality for the Apple iPhone.
According to the company, “Visto delivers the leading global platform for mobile operators to provide easy-to-use mobile email to the broadest set of devices. Visto’s open solution enables email for the mass market, targeting enterprises, small businesses mobile professionals and consumers. The company’s patented Visto Mobile™ platform with ConstantSync™ technology works in real time with POP3, IMAP, Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino email solutions for personal to business use, providing maximum control and flexibility for the operator and choice for the customer. Visto’s customized, brandable solutions are available through mobile operators worldwide including Elisa, Rogers Wireless, Qtel, SmarTone, SFR, Softbank Mobile, Sprint-NEXTEL, TELUS, Turkcell and the Vodafone Group.”
Through Visto, iPhone users will be able to experience secure mobile access to current and legacy versions of both Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino corporate messaging platforms. Visto will enable access that is easy to implement and administer and will alleviate IT concerns regarding security and reliability.
“The iPhone and other devices to follow will continue to accelerate demand for secure mobile access to corporate data including email, contacts, calendar and other important information sources,” said Brian Bogosian, president, chairman and CEO of Visto, in the press release. “The unique attributes of the iPhone will generate incremental demand for smart devices and will raise the bar for other phone manufacturers to meet and exceed any user experience enhancements that Apple has made. To be useful to business users, it must easily and securely provide access to corporate email – and that’s where Visto adds value and functionality for end users as they consider the iPhone over BlackBerry, Symbian or Windows Mobile devices as their single converged device to support both their personal and business needs.”
Visto Mobile will directly offer secure and easy-to-use mobile access to corporate and personal email for the iPhone in the United States. Additionally, Visto Mobile offers iPhone users peace of mind by securing their personal information using end-to-end security. For IT departments, this means that they can encrypt and protect sensitive corporate data without making any changes to their existing security infrastructure.
Visto Mobile for the iPhone will be available in late Q3 2007. iPhone users will be able to take advantage of a free 60-day trial of the Visto Mobile service.
More info: http://www.vistomobile.com/iphone/
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Shoeman!” for the heads up.]
Bloodbath.
Check Mate
That pretty much slays the last dragon I had. Games, Set, Match!
And so it begins…!
Visto corporate email FTW!
What excuse will IT think of now?
Man, the iPhone is about to crush the competition.
“That pretty much slays the last dragon I had. Games, Set, Match!”
But it doesn’t have a physical keyboard!!!!!!!!!! Not even a number pad for dialing!!!!!!!! OMFG!!!!!!!! It’s horrible!!!!!!!!!!!!
Look for a new round of FUD from ZDNET and all the other MS shills.
..and it might break if you drop it…
You know you won’t like the keyboard either.
Rob Enderle
“But the virtual keyboard only rotates to landscape in the web browser.”
– latest desperate IT objections
“The 2 mpixel camera is only just adequate for corporate espionage, even though it’s easy as hell to e-mail the spy pics after they’re snapped.”
– latest Microsoft objection/excuse
But it doesn’t have a physical keyboard!!!!!!
I gotta believe what I am reading. They keyboard is a pain for the 1st few days and then you simply get used to it. Other problems are minor (cut and paste / edit an office doc) and will surely be fixed quickly with software updates.
But some of you here underestimate the kind of stroke the IT guys have in a large corporation. They can be the “all powerful” (in a company like I work at, we call them the “Internet Police” because they monitor all activity and report any violations to HR for discipline/discharge).
An application like Visto is offering will stop them in their tracks, especially since I read that they are offering a full PUSH option with their service..
This is pretty big.
Is this real? Apple’s already said there’s no SDK for iPhone, so this can’t be a native app. It’s just an improved web frontend for your Exchange server?
Cool if it’s better than OWA (kind of has to be), but makes no mention of calendars, which is really the biggest hole.
In fact, the more I think about it, the more likely it seems that this is a name & phone number harvesting scheme by Visto.
Proceed with caution!
The speed with which good old tech inventiveness and software development will eliminate the real and perceived faults of the iPhone will be blinding. Not only from Apple, but from bright, motivated people who see every new product as an opportunity, rather than a threat.
And if the miserable tech journalists and paid talking heads they rely on continue to attack a product they don’t understand, we may just see the elimination of the majority Microsoft caused Stockholm Syndromed stupidity in our lifetimes, as money dries up for status quo retards trying to fight the future.
@PC Apologist
In fact, the more I think about it, the more likely it seems that this is a name & phone number harvesting scheme by Visto.
Proceed with caution!
http://members.aol.com/bufferm/wav/coocoo.wav
There’s not a lot of detail on this.
According to Information Week, Visto will use IMAP. The user will download an application on his desktop machine. That will sync up with the iPhone and then configure the bundled email client on it.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=FZMCSWQEUYMOSQSNDLOSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=200001401
No indication of what the encryption is about. Does the MUA on the iPhone support S/MIME like Mail.app on the desktop version of OS X perhaps?
Once this service syncs with the phone, how do they stop it buggering up the normal synching process? Does it turn that off? … But it can’t, since the standard synching via iTunes doesn’t just involve contacts, calendar, etc but music and video. One would hope it doesn’t cause problems, but i wouldn’t bank on it.
What does anyone really get out of this? Since Yahoo will push email to the phone using IMAP-push, anyway. There’s the encryption, but one has to suspect there’s built-in support for that on the phone, anyway–since Visto can’t be doing much on the client side, since the iPhone, to the chagrin of developers but sensibly enough, is locked down.
Perhaps this mostly about Visto working on the back end with Exchange and Domino/Notes. Not sure if this is a good thing or not. I’ve nothing against IBM and their corporate email systems actually are incredibly powerful–there’s virtually nothing you can’t do with Notes and you can generally customize it if you can’t:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-mail_clients
But I sure would like to see Microsoft get kicked up the arse, and a few management people tell IT to switch IMAP on on Exchange. Who knows, it might be the start of a process off weaning them off the MS teat.
@Stefano Jobso
Perhaps this mostly about Visto working on the back end with Exchange and Domino/Notes
I’m sure that’s what’s happening here:
To get started with Visto, iPhone users would have to download on their desktops an application that would then sync up with the iPhone and start sending e-mail back and fourth. A wizard on the desktop will take users through the steps to self-configure on the iPhone. Once they’ve completed the setup, the iPhone and Visto’s desktop app will start synchronizing. “Lack of third-party support is what may hinder the iPhone in the enterprise, but the good news is that e-mail already uses standards that Apple has leveraged,” said Kim.
Visto offers a “push e-mail” service similar to the BlackBerry, which delivers e-mail directly from a server to a smartphone. Companies interested in purchasing iPhones in bulk to use with business e-mail can purchase Visto’s server-based software that’s installed inside the enterprise firewall and integrates with Exchange and Lotus Domino.
Who is willing to bet that Apple had been working with Visto on this for a while?
there are certainly an infinite number of things that could be added to the iphone, but remember what s. jobs has said, “real artists ship.” plenty of time to add stuff later.
Slay those sacred cows!
What’s the big deal about this? I thought IMAP was corporate mail. Its funny that people think Exchange is the only email system out there when in fact, almost all ISP’s use Sendmail, Postfix, or Exim.
For gods sakes, if you have the authority to make change, get rid of Exchange. A good replacement is Zimbra. Its IMAP. And a lot more affordable than Exchange.
Maybe all the “other” phone makers can take a page from Pepsi. When Coke announced that they were changing there Coke formula Pepsi gave the next day off day off to all Pepsi employees…. Coke then re-introduced Coke Classic and added even more market share.
I bet the “others” are not going to have a day off until they see the pink slips 🙁
Show me that the contents of the email on my iPhone looks like the email on Mac at home and Apple has a decent integrated solution. Some bogus system where the two don’t work together is unacceptable. Come on Apple….let my Mac at home and my iPhone syn perfectly using .Mac !!!!!
Also, a full browser on the iPhone looks very cool, but is really quite useless for a device so small. Seriously, try navigating a full website while only seeing a small portion of it. RTemember the Apple II with a video card that only showed 40 character across it. Hence Apple announcing an RSS reader.
What’s the next insanely great thing?