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"As a first-generation iPhone owner, I\u2019ve come to discover and begrudgingly tolerate a number of quirks with the device. Not counting the botched launch the iPhone 3G, the retrofit iPhone and iPod touch 2.0 software updates, and the MobileMe cloudware suite, the software itself shows clear need for improvement. Though the device is widely seen as the benchmark for smart handhelds, and rightly so, in many ways, there some particularities that make for an exceedingly faulty experience. One is the push notification service.\nMany mobile Web users of BlackBerry devotion have long known that push mail is something just shy of heavenly in convenience. And so it is something that Apple was fairly quick to say would arrive on the iPhone. Enterprise users could mate the device with their corporate exchange server and have immediate access to email, calendar, etc., and all changes would quickly synchronize. Months later, Apple announced its intention to bring push to the consumer sector, too, through the .Mac replacement known as MobileMe.\nForward to today, and MobileMe has been seen roughing the public waters for several weeks, and doing so with some major hiccups. Yet, even after Apple had announced having remedied faults in email transmission late last month - at which point I sprang for a free 30-day trial of the service - problems have evidently persisted. Email simply would not \u201Cpush\u201D to my device. At least not in any way that would seem reasonably expedient. (Hours upon hours, let\u2019s say.) Suffice it to say, I abandoned the effort in a few days\u2019 time.\n\nI should note, other components in MobileMe did transfer information as advertised. Contacts added through my iPhone would move to the cloud automatically with little delay, for instance. But I assume for the broad majority of prospective subscribers, mail would be the singular most important aspect of the $99 investment. And it has underperformed, plain and simple.\nI would venture to think Apple will right all problems in coming months, and according to\u00A0 a relatively fresh MacRumors report, the company \"has pulled the push notification service in (the latest developer-specific iPhone 2.1 Beta 4 software) release \u2018for further development,\u2019\u201D proving that hypothesis to be very probable. (MacRumor\u2019s Jeff Longo notes that third party developers have issued requests for \u201Cbackground process support\u201D of push transfers for their applications, and that this notice likely promises such an enhancement at the SDK level.)\nBut one thing seems clear. While Apple takes an adventurous route with its mobile platform, pressing buttons both for consumers and corporate customers alike, reliability in cloud-based communications is not its forte. Yes, it can sell you songs, music videos, television shows, and movies with aplomb. Its podcasting efforts are also exemplary. But a BlackBerry/RIM killer - a success story which the company is naturally aiming to challenge - it isn\u2019t. And it won\u2019t be for quite a while longer."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/08/17/iphone-push-email/>