Outlook Mobile Update
Published Mar 17 2010 03:11 PM 4,305 Views

Now you can keep valuable information at hand with the new Microsoft Office Outlook Mobile Update and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.

The Outlook Mobile Update is available for Windows Mobile 6.1 phones. When your phone is connected to Exchange Server 2010, you are automatically informed if there is an update. If you have a Windows phone running Windows Mobile 6.5, you do not need this update.

Top new features

  • E-mails grouped by conversation: With your e-mails grouped by conversation, you can quickly see all responses and perform common e-mail actions that apply to the entire conversation, such as deleting, replying, flagging, and moving e-mails.
    Emails grouped by conversation in Outlook Mobile
  • Free/busy lookup: Getting in touch with people in your organization is now more effective with calendar availability. Have a quick question that needs to be answered? Quickly check a colleague's schedule to determine if a face-to-face visit in their office or a phone call is possible, or send them an e-mail if their schedule is booked.
    Free/busy lookup in Outlook Mobile
  • Sync SMS messages to Exchange: SMS messages now appear inside of Outlook or Outlook Web Access, so you don't need to pull your phone out of your pocket to read and respond when you're sitting at your PC. You can even get your SMS text messages if you forgot your phone at home right from within Outlook or Outlook Web Access.
    Sync SMS messages to Exchange
  • Enhanced voice mail: Exchange Server 2010 Unified Messaging provides voice mail preview, giving you a text version of your voice mail messages so you can read them without having to call and listen to each.
    Enhanced voicemail messages in Outlook Mobile

More Information

  • Outlook Mobile Update Deployment Guide
  • Outlook Mobile update supported on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and Standard versions.
  • Currently supported languages:
    • English
    • German
    • Chinese
    • French
    • Dutch
    • Japanese
    • Italian
    • Russian
    • Spanish
    • Swedish
    • Portuguese
  • Supported languages coming soon:
    • Korean
    • Danish
    • Finnish
    • Norwegian
    • Czech
    • Polish
    • Greek

 

-- Michael Higashi

15 Comments
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Nice to see Elisabetta, Todd, Arlene, and the gang are still making great use of Windows Mobile and Outlook Mobile :)
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How does Exchange 2010 know that there is a mobile client update?  Our 6.0 clients are not getting this notification.  Is there something that needs to be done on the server to trigger this?
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mpbk - The Outlook Mobile Update is for Windows Mobile 6.1 devices, not WM6.0 devices.

In terms of how the update process works - the WM6.1 device when it connects to E2010 CAS will automatically download a CAB and prompt the user to install it (assuming you have AllowMobileOTAUpdate=true on your activesync policy).  This enables the ability to update Outlook Mobile and does the detection to determine if a new build is available (which is located on microsoft.com servers).  If a new build is is available, the user is prompted and they can click on the message to download and install the new build.

Ross
Not applicable
mpbk,

Exchange ActiveSync in Exchange 2010 has logic to check the OS version number and the EAS process specifically looks out for builds for WM 6.1.
Not applicable
Is it safe to assume that the "Sync SMS messages to Exchange" just runs an agent on the phone looking out for SMS messages and then dumps them into Exchange? And if the phone isn't on, then the SMS message doesn't make it to Exchange. Is it also possible to send a message this way?

Also, will these features (minus the Mobile Outlook automatic update) be available to third party licensees of EAS?
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Russian version of this post is here:/Русский перевод статьи здесь: http://www.maximumexchange.ru/2010/03/18/outlook-mobile-update/
Not applicable
Why isn't this available for Windows Mobile 6.5?
The new features are not included in this verison.

Doesn't the updated client work with Exchange 2007?
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I suspect that the update is already included in Exchange 2010 for Windows Mobile 6.5 devices.

Too bad for us who are stuck with Exchange 2007 (my company just upgraded...).
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and if i have WM 6.1 but not exchange 2010 (but exchange 2003) - i am not worthy of getting this update?...
Not applicable
Jake,

SMS transport works through Windows Mobile's default SMS application.  

As a result, if your Windows Mobile 6.1 phone (data channel) is not on it will not be able to send or receive SMS'es with Exchange 2010.

To answer your other question about this functionality being available to Exchange ActiveSync Licensees, the answer is yes!  All of these new features that are built into the Outlook Mobile Update are exposed through the Licensed Exchange ActiveSync protocol.  

Not applicable
Michael: Good to know... thanks! Also, good news on it being available to all Active Sync licensees... now, of course, the next step is getting the third parties to build in the features :). (Though us users probably have more influence in pushing that than anybody else.)
Not applicable
It appears my server is not sending out the update message.  I noticed that my default policy has MobileOTAUpdateMode set to MinorVersionUpdates.  Should that be changed to MajorVersionUpdates?  Also, it does not look like the MobileOTAUpdateMode parameter is defined for any of the default roles.  Am I missing something?
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Steve: Check out the "Outlook Mobile Update Deployment Guide" in the More Information section in this blog posting.  It'll provide you with more details on how to get your Exchange server setup to receive the OTA Notification email.
Not applicable
It is still a little disappointing to see these new features not available to those us still running Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007.  I woudl think Microsoft would be wanting to push the Windows Mobile platform?

In my environment this would be one more way to show that our investment in MS tech is a good idea.  I am constantly having to answer why the Iphone, Android, Blackberry should not replace the Windows Mobile phones.  People bring in their personal devices, IPhones mainly and show off what they see as e-mail goodness.  Many mid-level managers are attracted to these things.

Having new features that can be added to existing technology investments really goes a long way to forstalling these pressures.  Telling management we need upgrade again (we just moved to Exchange 2007 last year) just to get these new features is not going to win me any fans.
Not applicable
What about synchronizing notes through EAS?
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‎Jul 01 2019 03:50 PM
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