40 plus Handhelds for small Company

[strat1]

It has been a while since I have posted—good to be back and boy am I out of touch since I missed 2 months lol.

Need some help

My buddy is starting a company and wants a handheld device that can receive html based emails and confirm the receipt of the email once received. It does need to connect via WIFI and modem. Is this something that blackberry can handle? If his company goes with exchange for an email solution, how can he leverage that with this handheld?

Any reccomendations on hardware?

Thanks
Kevin

[bob05]

Blackberry sounds right for you, however I'm not sure about the WIFI capabilities (most cell phone companies will force you to buy an internet plan for your Blackberry anyways). I do know Blackberries are fairly good as far as email capabilities go. Here's a pretty advanced Blackberry: http://www.t-mobile.com/products/ove...6167&class=pda

[bob05]

From this it looks like Blackberries play nicely with Exchange: http://www.blackberry.com/products/s...ge/index.shtml

[dajogejr]

We just looked into this for our company. yes, they play well...but, you have to have an exchange server AND the blackberry server (or relay, I think it's called) for it to work.

They are expensive, to say the least.

Here's a couple of ideas to throw out as well. If you get a Pocket PC type, users don't have to learn the Palm system...and, no BlackBerry Relay server. Also...make sure your users don't mind carrying that extra bulk of a phone in the blackberry...

[r8500]

There is a wya around the Blackberry relay server. Every blackberry gets its own e-mail account. YOu can set the Exchange server to forward a copy of every e-mail to the blackberry account, while leaving the original copy in the users mailbox on the Exchange server.

[dajogejr]

Interesting...Ron...good to know.

We're a ways from that...but, good to know nonetheless...

[r8500]

We have a client looking to get about 5 of them, and strictly wanted them for the e-mail features, but did no want to pay for the relay server. I can't say I blame them either, it costs more then Exchange, LOL

I can't take full credit though, Fancy helped me find out about the e-mail accounts a while ago, whenever I posted about them

[dajogejr]

Yeah...I thought it was in the 5K to 8K ballpark...just to get your darned email to a wirless phone...yikes.

[r8500]

For some companies though, it is a must have. I mean, if xyz company has it, they must too

[dajogejr]

Oh...I could see Big Three...major corporations using it...

But, for mom and pop or other small companies...over kill IMO...