Windows Mobile vs. RIM Blackberry

RIM has been the dominant force in the corporate mobile world with its Blackberry solution for corporate e-mail. It's now facing its toughest challenge from Microsoft and the latest Windows Mobile technology. This article provides comparisons between the two global mobility solution providers.

We'll compare four key areas of the RIM Blackberry solution and the competing Windows Mobile standard. I provide independent consulting services for Microsoft, and feel that Windows Mobile is a superior enterprise mobility solution as shown by the information presented below.

Licensing

RIM has a restrictive license requirement for device usage in enterprise environments. For someone wanting to use a Blackberry device in their company, buying the device is only the start. Then they have to get a license out of a bank of licenses that have been purchased by their company. This license gives them the ability to connect to their corporate e-mail service.

Windows Mobile has no license requirements for implementing an enterprise solution. Microsoft did not see the point in charging the customer twice (once for the device and once for using the device to retrieve e-mail). The device integrates with corporate e-mail systems right out of the box.

Architecture

The RIM solution has three components: Blackberry devices, Blackberry Enterprise Servers (BES), and licenses (Fig. 1). These components must all be integrated in order for a Blackberry device to retrieve corporate information. Each component requires its own support process, not to mention the cost of each required component.

Fig. 1: Blackberry systems include the device, a BES Server and Blackberry licenses, and use a VPN connection to access e-mail.

The Blackberry clients connect via a Virtual Private Network (VPN), (which is required), through the firewall, then connect to a BES Server and then finally to an Exchange Server. Each Blackberry device requires a license to access these services.

Microsoft capitalized on its dominant Windows Server platform by designing a solution for mobile devices that uses existing Microsoft technology like Active Directory authentication. Also, their solutions use common protocols like RPC and HTTP, thus simplifying Windows Mobile connectivity to services like e-mail (Fig. 2). Unlike RIM, a VPN connection is not required on the Windows Mobile side, simplifying setup, configuration and support of e-mail access.

Fig. 2: The Windows Mobile solution for e-mail can use either VPN or RPC over HTTP to connect into the corporate environment to access email and other corporate information.

BES Server pushes e-mail to the device as an automatic alert that a new e-mail has arrived. Windows Mobile devices work as a "pull" e-mail client: each time they connect to an Exchange server they pull down the e-mails waiting for them. The user can set the device to automatically pull down e-mails at set intervals (for instance every 10 minutes). RIM may have bragging rights that it gets e-mails to its users quicker, but you could set a Windows device to pull down new e-mails every minute if time were that much of a factor.

Device Security and Management

Blackberry devices provide a decent level of security with password keys for the device and remote management using the Blackberry Enterprise Servers.

The Windows Mobile platform provides the ability to set passwords for the device, manage the device remotely, and lock SD and CF storage cards on the device. Some of these capabilities are out-of-the box: others are available from third-party software like that from Xcellenet (http://www.xcellenet.com), which provides remote security for Windows Mobile devices with its product, Afaria. With Afaria, you can send remote "wipe-off" commands to devices, remotely deleting all personal information on the device should it be lost or stolen.