Over the decade I have been using mobile devices to view email, I have noticed how users get completely addicted to their devices. I recall walking around with a Nokia flip phone – circa 2000 that I finally gave up for a Motorola phone circa 2004! I still think both vendors offer great phones. Today, I walk around with a Pearl from Blackberry. 2007 marks the first time in a decade that I have accepted a Blackberry as a phone and as an email device. I had both. I get the Gist of Email from various sources (personal and enterprise) sent to me through www.amikamoble.net. I don’t bother synching my Blackberry since I don’t want the 200 or so messages I get a day to come to me mobile. I am finding that this is a good way to separate what I have to absolutely address while away from my Inbox. I am definitely an addict of mobile email and am very fussy about my mobile device. I know people who have steadfastly refused to give up their devices until the keys start to fail. The reason for this besides the form factor, look and feel is the information that these devices have onboard in terms of contacts and now pictures. One way around this is to synch the device to a desktop contact manager and download pictures and crucial information before they get lost altogether when the mobile device finally gives out as all things manufactured tend to do!
Not only do users become attached to specific mobile devices but they can personalize their mobile phones further through the effective use of black and/white lists with services such as that at www.amikamobile.net. Judicious use of filtering words during the sign-on for this service creates a highly personalized mobile phone, thereby increasing the efficacy of the forwarding of critical email alerts and their relevance to every user. Filtering can be amended later by returning to the sign-on page and making changes, additions and/or deletions as necessary.