Road Warriors beware... Not ready for prime time for us business users...

[bguild]

The OP is 100% on point with his observations, and I agree with him, but I am putting up with the Droid until they fix some of these issues.

And New2u, there is no mention of Activesync profiling fixes in the Dec 11th update. Read it again, solving the major lack of AS profiling support in this OS will eventually happen but not with the first update.

All the exchange issues are being tracked at Issues - android - Project Hosting on Google Code but among the major ones are:

1) no activesync profiling support, which makes syncing the device to most corporations exchange difficult, unless your Exchange Admins are willing to exempt you from security policies.
2) no incorporated GAL support, unless you use the seperate Corporate Directory app from Motorola
3) no Accept/Tenative/Decline in Calendar Emails received
4) No filter, sort, or search functionality in Corporate Email app
5) no in-line message forwarding. Forwarded emails go to users as .EML attachments, instead of the original messages
6) sometimes difficulties with downloading attachments.

There are a few other major ones if you search for "exchange" in the list above.

This phone is fabulous on most everything, but if you are a corporate user, especially a former blackberry user, this phone can be very difficult to use, FOR NOW...

 

[Stigy]

I just wanted to clarify one thing with the OP and the above post that I am not seeing in my corporate environment:

3) Its a bit strange and inconvenient, BUT you can accept meeting invites on the Droid.

When you get the message that contains the invite go to the Corporate Calendar and find the day that meeting is located on. When you open up the appointment, which should already be added to your Corporate Calendar (on device only) you can act on it from there (accept, decline, etc...)

Let me know if that works for you.

 

[bguild]

Stigy, I should have clarified, it but yah I already knew that. And really for Exchange business users, clicking out of the email app, remembering an appointments date and time, opening Corporate Calendar, manually finding that date and time, and opening the appointment, then accepting or declining... well that is just a huge waste of time.

You notice that is why I said no accept/tentative/decline in Calendar Emails received I've got to believe this was just an oversight when they released Android 2.0 because it's so blatantly obvious that this is bass ackwards.

 

[Stigy]

I totally agree, but some people don't even know about that method so I figured I would just throw it in there.

I honestly don't have a HUGE email load daily in Exchange that I need my phone for since I am mainly sitting in front of my computer, but I could see the annoyances if you were on the road.

 

[wakblak]

I'm coming from a Samsung i760 and I can say that the potential for the Droid is much greater then that phone which was good for certain things, but a POS for most and I used it for 2 years.
The exchange/outlook thing is an issue and I hope that Google/Verizon work on the functionality, but from an internet/integration standpoint, I fell that I'm light years ahead using the Droid compared to the i760 windows 6.1 system.

 

[dcoli]

droid lacking adv. email and calendar features

I think by "advanced" I mean "standard on a Blackberry." I loved the Droid for a thousand reasons, but ultimately had to return it because I couldn't get pages based on the content of particular corporate e-mails (warnings that our server had gone down). Also I found that it didn't automatically recognize phone numbers embedded in an e-mail, or a number of small but very convenient features that evolved in the Blackberry.

I'd still like to get one. Is there any place online where I can find out if these were fixed in any of the updates? I tried it out initially in early December.

 

[bdbraaten]

Also I found that it didn't automatically recognize phone numbers embedded in an e-mail,

Not sure about the default email client but I just tested this using k9 email and it worked perfectly.

 

[ggpike]

Also I found that it didn't automatically recognize phone numbers embedded in an e-mail,

Not sure about the default email client but I just tested this using k9 email and it worked perfectly.

Mine works in the default email . . . just long press on the number and it pops up.

 

[TrueFangz]

I too have switched from the Samsung i760 with WM 6.1.

I liked that phone, with the exception of the sucky soft screen, and bulkiness, specially with the extended battery on it. I had the worst luck with calibrating the touch screen. After a while, the accuracy got very bad, and I couldn't calibrate anymore. The Align screen mode would just cylcle on a never ending loop, and I had to get used to using the D-Pad, and never using the touch again on it.

I have had my Droid since 2/8/2010. I love it very much. By far the best phone ever. But agreeing with the OP, it does lack several business environment needs. I'm finding new work arounds for stuff almost everyday.

The best solution My company has done regarding e-mail, contacts, and calendar syncing is a program called Companion Link. This will sync your outlook to Google, and Google is always in sync with the Driod. The version we bought is $39.99 per license. I think it works well.

We decided not to go with "TouchDown" and use the exchange, because Verizon charges another Monthly fee for supporting Exchange. As I've said in my first post, After spending righteous bucks on the phone, plus the monthly voice AND data plan excpenses, We didn't feel the need to pay Verizon more money than necessary to support Exchange.

True, we had to buy Companion Link Licenses, but a 1 time charge for each Droid user (12 in my company) beats paying monthly fee's for 12 users that would rack up in no time flat.

Anyhow, for anyone in a business environment interested in a Droid, be cautioned that it will be quite different, but after time, you'll get most of what you need figured out, and will probably be quite pleased with Android.

 

[NoKz]

I think the phone is great for a casual user.

Sorry, I just had to LOL. This isn't the casual user's phone. :icon_ banana:

 

[jthorpe]

I'm also a power business user, and this phone does everything I want and more. Good luck to you.

 

[SGTiger]

I'm also a power business user, and this phone does everything I want and more. Good luck to you.

+1 I am a business owner and everything I want and need can be done with this phone. Perhaps the title of the original post should have been:

"Not ready for prime time for those who will not investigate apps on the market"

or

"Not ready for prime time for those saddled with Microsoft Exchange"

However it can be used more than satisfactorily with Exchange with the proper configuration of the Exchange server. Additionally there are apps out there that address all of the OP's other objections.

 

[swallman]

I too have switched from the Samsung i760 with WM 6.1.

I liked that phone, with the exception of the sucky soft screen, and bulkiness, specially with the extended battery on it. I had the worst luck with calibrating the touch screen. After a while, the accuracy got very bad, and I couldn't calibrate anymore. The Align screen mode would just cylcle on a never ending loop, and I had to get used to using the D-Pad, and never using the touch again on it.

I have had my Droid since 2/8/2010. I love it very much. By far the best phone ever. But agreeing with the OP, it does lack several business environment needs. I'm finding new work arounds for stuff almost everyday.

The best solution My company has done regarding e-mail, contacts, and calendar syncing is a program called Companion Link. This will sync your outlook to Google, and Google is always in sync with the Driod. The version we bought is $39.99 per license. I think it works well.

We decided not to go with "TouchDown" and use the exchange, because Verizon charges another Monthly fee for supporting Exchange. As I've said in my first post, After spending righteous bucks on the phone, plus the monthly voice AND data plan excpenses, We didn't feel the need to pay Verizon more money than necessary to support Exchange.

True, we had to buy Companion Link Licenses, but a 1 time charge for each Droid user (12 in my company) beats paying monthly fee's for 12 users that would rack up in no time flat.

Anyhow, for anyone in a business environment interested in a Droid, be cautioned that it will be quite different, but after time, you'll get most of what you need figured out, and will probably be quite pleased with Android.

Just to clarify for everyone - Verizon does NOT require an additional monthly fee to support Exchange. If you use TouchDown, that's all you need (as long as your company's Exchange server is setup correctly, which most are). That's been something that has been misunderstood for some time.

 

[jsh1120]

I too have switched from the Samsung i760 with WM 6.1.

I liked that phone, with the exception of the sucky soft screen, and bulkiness, specially with the extended battery on it. I had the worst luck with calibrating the touch screen. After a while, the accuracy got very bad, and I couldn't calibrate anymore. The Align screen mode would just cylcle on a never ending loop, and I had to get used to using the D-Pad, and never using the touch again on it.

I have had my Droid since 2/8/2010. I love it very much. By far the best phone ever. But agreeing with the OP, it does lack several business environment needs. I'm finding new work arounds for stuff almost everyday.

The best solution My company has done regarding e-mail, contacts, and calendar syncing is a program called Companion Link. This will sync your outlook to Google, and Google is always in sync with the Driod. The version we bought is $39.99 per license. I think it works well.

We decided not to go with "TouchDown" and use the exchange, because Verizon charges another Monthly fee for supporting Exchange. As I've said in my first post, After spending righteous bucks on the phone, plus the monthly voice AND data plan excpenses, We didn't feel the need to pay Verizon more money than necessary to support Exchange.

True, we had to buy Companion Link Licenses, but a 1 time charge for each Droid user (12 in my company) beats paying monthly fee's for 12 users that would rack up in no time flat.

Anyhow, for anyone in a business environment interested in a Droid, be cautioned that it will be quite different, but after time, you'll get most of what you need figured out, and will probably be quite pleased with Android.

Good points all. And for a small business (as it sounds like you are), the functionality provided by Companion Link seems to be an excellent solution. Add to it some other third party tools such as Docs To Go and mobile versions of other popular business software packages and most business users will be satisfied.

I, for example, am largely satisfied with the functionality my Droid provides though I'm amazed that there does not seem to be any way to password protect access to the gmail or email applications on the phone.

Unfortunately, there is a more fundamental problem for many business and government users. So far, at least, the android o/s simply does not provide some essential security features that are built into the BlackBerry and WinMo platforms. And until that changes many folks simply won't have an option of using a Droid (or other android phones) because their organizations will not certify them.

 

[elgordo123]

I have to completely disagree with you.
I run my own business, IT consulting, tech support, sales in which I'm on the road and visiting customer sites. I find that most of the time I never have to turn on my laptop as my droid handles most of what I do. I came from a windows mobile 6 phone that was severely lacking in so many ways. The droid is beautiful compared to that.

There are apps to take care of 99% of your issues. I had to get add-ons apps for a lot of things on my windows mobile phone (for it even to be compatible with Microsoft's own products), iphone (from what I know) is the same.