Microsoft Exchange 2010 updates for Windows Mobile

While a lot of articles @ MobilityMinded cover Windows Phones, I want to take a little side-step and have a look at the Microsoft Exchange 2010 updates for Windows Mobile. I found a video with Adam Glick, -Senior Technical Product Manager in the Unified Communications Team- on Microsoft TechNet.

Adam Glick’s focus is on client expierences against Microsoft Exchange, which actually means “everything” that connects into the Microsoft Exchange.  One goal of the Unified Communications Team is to bring great experiences to mobile phones (focus on mobility) in line with the three-screen-strategy.

Since people are more and more working mobile it’s vital to access their (corporate) Microsoft Exchange data, and therefore great updates for Windows Mobile are coming in the upcoming Microsoft Exchange 2010 release.

Exchange 2010 updates for Windows Mobile End-users (device-side)

When I currently open Pocket Outlook on my HTC Snap, I see a list-view of e-mails in my inbox which shows just the sender and the subject. Based on this information you need to make the choice to check the contest of the e-mail directly or look at it later. However in Microsoft Exchange 2010 the layout of the list is changed, with the date added and a little bit of preview is added.

Conversation view

You all probably know the long thread of e-mails where everyone replies on a same subject. The result is a long list of e-mails in your inbox sorted by date. One of the updates for Windows Mobile on Microsoft Exchange 2010 is the conversation view, which collapses the long list of e-mails into one conversation.

In other words it could be described as applying the threaded-sms-concept from Windows Phones on the e-mail flow around a certain subject.  A great improvement in productivity and effeciency, since it helps to manage information more easily. Adam Glick has produced a short demo on his HTC Touch HD, which is recommended in addition to the video above.

In line with Microsoft’s three-screen-strategy the conversation view is also a key feature, we will see in Microsoft Outlook 2010, and Outlook web acces according to Paul Thurrott’s article on Microsoft Outlook 2010 in the technical preview.

Move conversation (rules)

In addition to the conversation view and combined with the ability to create rules on the Exchange server, it now becomes possible to move a conversation and all future messages within this conversation from your Windows Phone (until now it isn’t possible to create rules in Pocket Outlook).  

In other words you don’t need to move each message separately, but you are able to efficiently move a complete conversation. The created rules on the server are stored in a separate cache by conversation id, and don’t require (any) management, according to Adam Glick. If you want to change- or delete the rule it can easily be done from Microsoft Outlook 2010 or Outlook Webaccess.

Personally I think this is helpful since I can easily file messages around a certain project in a separate folder from my Windows Phone. Furthermore it emphasizes the “power” of the conversation view as well. Adam Glick has again produced a great demo on his HTC Touch HD on the Microsoft Exchange website.

Voicemail

Furthermore Microsoft has put some serious work in updating the icons in Microsoft Outlook and synchronizing these accross the three screens. This results in providing better (visual) information on the state of conversations and individual messages.

One icon which catched my eye was the voicemail icon. Adam Glick described another great update for Windows Phones, namely voicemails. Voicemails are a significant part of our daily communication, and honestly I wasn’t aware that it could be connected with a Microsoft Exchange server. Still I need to conduct some more research if this only applies for internal corporate systems, or normal mobile subscriptions at an operator as well. Now I need to call in to my mobile operator and listen to the voicemail.

With the coming update on Microsoft 2010, you are able to receive a transciption of the voicemail on your Mobile Device. Again a great improvement in effeciency, since I wouldn’t even call in to listen to my voicemail anymore, but just read the transcriptions. Furthermore a built-in player is added to listen to the voicemail, directly from Pocket Outlook.

Free Busy Information

Finally it becomes possible to check a contact’s free / busy information on the Microsoft Exchange server directly from its contact card on your Windows Phone. Since this functionality is key to scheduling meetings I think it’s great that this approach (which is already in place in Microsoft Outlook) comes to Windows Phones as well. Check out the according demo of Adam Glick on the Microsoft Exchange website.

Thoughts and wrap-up

First I want to remark that this article focuses on the updates for Windows Mobile from an end-user perspective. In the Microsoft TechNed interview with Adam Glick there are also significant improvements for the IT-professionals who manage the Microsoft Exchange server.

Furthermore I need to compliment Microsoft in creating a unified experience accross the different Windows platforms in line with the three-screen-strategy outlined at MWC 2009 and CTIA 2009. I hope I will be approved for the Microsoft Office 2010 Tech Preview, so I can relate the described updates to Microsoft Outlook 2010 as well.

However I think there is room for feven urther improvement of Pocket Outlook, which I expressed in a critical note in my article: “HTC Inner Circle – Watchflag head-to-head comparison”. Microsoft Outlook 2007 has a great search function, to search through your e-mails accross different folders and accounts. I hope to see a similar integrated search experience on my Windows Phone as well, since Outlook Search is a significant user-scenario on you Windows Phone. Perhaps an opportunity for Microsoft Bing for Mobile ! ;o)

Finally I have personal Hosted Exchange subscription at Sherweb, and I really hope that Microsoft Exchange 2010 will be implemented there. The efficiency- and productivity related improvements make me very happy, probably even more than the latest user interface improvements within Windows Mobile 6.5 (probably because I do consider a Windows Phone as a workhorse).

If you want t find out more about Microsoft Exchange 2010 or you want to download a beta, head over to the Microsoft Exchange 2010 website or the Microsoft Exchange Team website. Special thanks to the Maarten Sonneveld and Ferjan Ormeling, who wrote a short news item about the updates for Windows Mobile on the Dutch Windows Mobile Blog.