I'm not sure going to WiFi-enabled BBs will help with costs as much as you think, as I believe that you will have a hard time buying Blackberries without having to pay for a BB data plan from your provider. That said, the WiFi-enabled BBs are pretty good and can automatically switch from WiFi to Edge/3G and can be configured with a preference to WiFi if available.
As you note, battery life in any handheld staying connected to WiFi all day long could be a problematic, too. -Malcolm -----Original Message----- From: N Parr [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 10:46 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Something that works like a BB but runs everything over WiFi Just trying to do some brainstorming here. We are a mid sized manufacturing company and Management has embraced the use of BB's for a long time now. We even go as far as giving them to supervisors on the floor so they don't have to be tied to computer to check their email. We live and breathe email and it's very easy for most of management to justify the cost of service for a supervisor in time saved and productivity. But since we are a single location and have a facility wide Wireless infrastructure if I had a BB that connected via WiFi instead of cellular I could save a ton of money on the cost of cell service. I know there are certain models of BB's with built in wifi and I could use cheap windows mobile phones direct with exchange. The only real requirements are real time sync with email, contacts and calendar. And the ability to get through the day on a single charge which may be a challenge for some devices with wifi turned on all the time. Just want to know if anyone else has implemented something similar and how they went about it. Thanks Niles ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
