Google turns on Exchange for iPhone and Windows Mobile users

Google on Monday announced Exchange support for iPhone and Windows Mobile devices, allowing them to synchronize Google Calendar events and Gmail contacts almost instantly via push technology. Naturally, the service is a beta and Google wears some catches on its sleeve, but this is nevertheless a major productivity win for consumers and business users of the search giant’s Google Apps products.

Continuing its productivity war on Apple, Microsoft, and everyone in between, Google on Monday turned on Exchange support for iPhone and Windows Mobile device owners. This is in addition to Google’s existing tool for BlackBerry phones, but the company is also including contact sync support for other phones via the standard SyncML protocol.

Wrapped under the product umbrella of Google Sync, Gmail contacts and Google Calendar events can now be synchronized via over-the-air (OTA) push between Windows Mobile devices and both first- and second-generation iPhones (note, however, that iPhone OS 2.2 is required). Configuration for these devices is performed via their respective, built-in ActiveSync and Exchange configuration features, respectively, though Google Sync strangely does not support push e-mail for these devices yet. Microsoft says that Google licensed the Exchange ActiveSync, and these features are available for free today for both general consumers and, for once, Google Apps users at the same time.

Read more: arstechnica.com