Messaging and Directory Server software used around the world in the Government, Military, Aviation and Commercial sectors.
Solutions
Open Standards based Mobile Email
Currently the growing demand for mobile messaging (especially so called 'push' email) is being met by proprietary solutions, often tied to specific mobile devices and operator service contracts.
However a combination of a good IMAP server and decent mobile device clients are capable of delivering an Open Standards alternative to proprietary solutions today. Extensions to standards like those proposed by the IETF's LEMONADE working group.
Access to email on a mobile device using IMAP is even possible for users who are only able to access email via POP, by use of an IMAP/POP gateway.
On this page we look at:
- Mobile Email access using IMAP today
- Mobile Email access using an IMAP/POP gateway
- Mobile Email access: IMAP and LEMONADE
Mobile Email access using IMAP today
As described in this whitepaper IMAP returns a significantly better user experience on mobile devices than POP when performing basic email services (checking for new messages, scanning message listings and downloading).
A combination of IMAP servers (like Isode's M-Box) and clients for a wide spectrum of mobile devices (Symbian, Palm, Windows Mobile) allow an email service provider to provide a realistic mobile messaging offering based on Open Standards today. Isode has tested a wide range of IMAP clients on mobile devices accessing M-Box and we recommend the following clients:
| Platform | Client |
|---|---|
| Symbian | |
| Palm | |
| Windows Mobile |
Mobile Email access using an IMAP/POP gateway
POP is the most widely used open standard message access protocol, and many users have mailboxes which only support POP access. POP is not an efficient access protocol in situations where slow and/or expensive network connections are used (as in access over a mobile network as illustrated by our whitepaper on Accessing POP servers from mobile devices).
M-Box POP/IMAP Gateway enables mail clients to access Internet Standard POP (Post Office Protocol) mailboxes using IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). M-Box POP/IMAP Gateway is based on M-Box, Isode's IMAP and POP message store.
You an read more about the M-Box POP/IMAP gateway here.
Mobile Email access: IMAP and LEMONADE
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) established the LEMONADE (License to Enhanced Mobile Oriented And Diverse Endpoints) group to examine messaging standards extentions (IMAP and SMTP) in support of devices with memory/processor limitations operating on bandwidth/latency challenged networks, like smart phones, set-top boxes, etc.
The LEMONADE work is resulting in standards which address issues such as:
- Forward without download: Lemonade allows (large) messages to be forwarded to another account or person without having to download the message to the mobile device.
- Optimization for broken network connections: Standard IMAP has a quite resource intensive start-up. Lemonade provides quick reconnect mechanism to avoid this in situations where an underlying connection is broken and re-established (e.g. a train journey).
M-Box, Isode's POP/IMAP server already includes some LEMONADE features prior to the standardization of the work. As further LEMONADE extensions are standardized, they will be incorporated into M-Box.
Isode is also in discussions with providers of clients for a wide range of mobile platforms so that their clients will contain support of the evolving LEMONADE features.
More information on LEMONADE can be found in our whitepaper 'Open Standards: the best approach for mobile messaging'.
