I used to use a dot mac account for email, but every year it seemed that Apple's service provided less and less value. I got rid of dot mac a while ago and just registered my own domain: benjaminskelton.com (there is no website there right now, although I will move the blog over eventually). I signed up for Google Apps back when it was in beta, and it works really well. Having Gmail as your web email interface is great and it was really easy to set up and get going.
Recently Google announced that both the free standard edition (the service I have) and the paid premier edition of Google Apps provide BlackBerry support. If you are a heavy BlackBerry user you are going to be disappointed by Google's approach. In order to get your Google email on your BlackBerry you have to download a little application. The application checks for email every so often, but more often then not I end up having to refresh the app to view new messages.
It would be great if Google partnered with BlackBerry to provide true support for the device, so your messages would appear instantly in your inbox, like they do with Notes or Exchange and BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES). This would make Google Apps pretty compelling for many BlackBerry heavy organizations, and I am sure many people would pay for the privilege of BES-like functionality linked to your Gmail inbox.
This will be an interesting space to watch in the next couple of years. Exchange and Notes have the advantage of the client. Well, Notes might now that IBM finally seems to have a focus on client usability and Microsoft does on the Windows side with Outlook, but their Mac / Entourage story is currently pretty blah. It will be interesting to see what 2007 brings us :)
Comments