Can my iPhone do Blackberry?

Can my iPhone do Blackberry?

No.

But since Blackberry Enterprise Servers relay messages that reside on an Exchange server, you should be able to use ActiveSync and sync your iPhone with the Exchange server itself, rather than the BES.

The iPhone cannot do Blackberry, or connect to RIM's Blackberry Enterprise Server, which is a RIM proprietary product for a Blackberry only.

Does this mean your company will disable access to the Exchange server via ActiveSync with your Exchange account? Your company can do both but if not, you won't be able to access your Exchange account via ActiveSync with the iPhone, which is the only way to get Push access and over the air syncing for contact info and calendar events with an Exchange server using an iPhone.

I too have this problem and trying to get to grips with.
Would you explain (in simple terms pls!) what will happen if I put my Blackberry SIM into an iphone - will I be able to get to the internet?

My company will not give us iphones because we are on Vodafone and in the UK, Vodafone are not doing the iphone yet. I had hoped that I could get my own iphone, use my corporate blackberry sim and using the inetrnet get to my mail through web access, which we have.

But can you get to the internet using the blackberry sim - do you not have to go via the corporate blackberry server?

I just cannot get to grips with this - so help is appreciated!

The iPhone is sold in the UK as carrier locked with O2 only. This means a SIM card provided by and activated with O2 only will work with an iPhone that was purchased in the UK.

There are a lot of 'factory unlocked' iphones on ebay over here. Will the corporate Vodafone blackberry sim not work on one of these?

I have heard that the 'unlocked' ones cannot receive new patches/fixes though without reverting them to the locked position - is this true? In other words, are the locked ones not worth the money?

I think what I will do, is take out a personal O2 contract, get a free iphone on full warranty etc, divert my Vodafone number to the new number (company pays) and access my corporate mail through web access - is this my best option?

I have gotten tired of the Blackberry as the internet is such rubbish, hence my desire for an iphone...

Apple sells the iPhone as officially unlocked or "factory unlocked" with cellular providers in certain countries - it is the cellular provider for the iPhone in those countries that handles the official unlocking. Apple's warranty for the iPhone is honored in the country where the iPhone was sold as new only.

A hack is required to unlock an iPhone that was sold as carrier locked, and doing so is against Apple's license agreement for the iPhone and voids the warranty. Installing a firmware update on a hacked iPhone re-locks the iPhone to the designated cellular provider for the iPhone that was sold as carrier locked.

If you have access to your corporate email via webmail access, you or should be able to access the account via webmail access with Safari on the iPhone. I suggest visiting an Apple store if there is one nearby, or an O2 store and use a display iPhone to confirm you can access your company email account via webmail access with Safari on the iPhone before making the plunge.

If your company email account is an Exchange account and your company has ActiveSync enabled for your Exchange account at the Exchange server, you can access your company Exchange account as an Exchange account with the iPhone's Mail client via ActiveSync. This will provide Push access for received messages, and provide for over the air syncing for contact info and calendar events with the Exchange server.

Thanks for this Allan - it seems this is the place to stay!

I read some of your other posts about active synch and have the question out with one of our IT chaps to answer. I do know I can access our web mail from my wife's blackberry by going out on the internet.

I will get an O2 phone - it is a lot of money to tie up without some form of formal backup. My dilemma now is whether to do it tomorrow or wait for the new one. There was a note in our prees on this, expected end July. The only difference that would suit me (I do not need high storage) is the camera at 3.2Mpx - but a friend of mine recently went to Cairo, forgot his camera and had to rely on his iphone, well, I was very impressed with the results so I am not sure I even need 3.2...

Thanks again for the help!

Thank you in advance for your insight and expertise. I unfortunately am forced to work in the PC world, and my firm (global bank), has gone RIM. At one point they had other servers in addition to RIM (Goodlink?? & ....), and within the past year they pulled the plug and went exclusively Canadian. We of coarse use Outlook, and our IT help desk told my assistant that our "system is like a great big loop. The email enters our system, is sent to Exchange then RIM, the provider and ultimately the device." Yada Yada.... RIM servers are involved, "it won't work." HOWEVER, I’ve heard of a brave man that has accomplished this feat, and it may have been due to an app. Is there an app that can disguise an iphone as a BB to a RIM server? Is this crazy talk? If not, brilliant app developers get to it! Or, did this brave solider simply hook his iPhone to the system, and the Exchange server is the muscle?


1. What is Exchange versus Enterprise?
2. If a company uses one of the aforementioned E-servers, does this mean that ActiveSync will work?

On July 20th, 1969 The United States safely landed two gentlemen on the moon, while the third orbited. The reason I mention this is that they had slightly more computing firepower than a hand held calculator, (1967, Texas Instruments). We have a brilliant and powerful device in our pockets, we now just need to figure out how to make it fetch our (my) email. It’s not rocket science folks.

In addition, my firm also blocks SMS, MMS, GPS, Bluetooth, most web functionality etc. If I am able to jerry-rig this lovely contraption to behave, will I loose said functionality?

I nervously look forward to this response, as I love my iPhone, and would have to double pocket mobiles if not. Let's put our heads together, and figure this out.


Apologies for paraphrasing, an elementary understanding of complex systems, spelling and grammatical errors.

Thank you.