Convergence is one of the biggest trends of the past years. Big benefit of this convergence is the that the computing power of a mobile device is combined with the connectivity of mobile internet. This allows you to have a working internet connection everywhere you go, giving you the opportunity to stay in touch with everyone you like in the way you like.

e-Mail

Every windows mobile devices comes with a standard e-mail client. This e-mail client supports both POP3 and IMAP4, including SSL support. Mail synchronization can be done on a periodic basis, and the volume of mail downloaded can be limited (both by limiting the maximum size of messages as well as the number of days being downloaded).

One of the nice features of the standard client is the complete integration with the contacts. Not only for obtaining e-mail adresses, but also it provides a very subtle integration in recieved e-mail. The picture shown here shows that the caller-picture is also shown for the sender, making mail a bit more personal. As you can also see, the names of the known contacts are underlined: tapping them opens that contact so that you can contact them in another way, by for example text messages or phone. Another good feature is that it is capable of downloading messages while the device stays suspended.

There are tools to improve the standard mailbox, allowing you to adapt the build in client to accomodate your needs. There are also alternative Mail-clients for windows mobile, compensating for the lack of functionality or power of the standard mail client. There is some missing functionality: most important functionality is the lack of support for HTML e-mail which only became available to Windows Mobile 6 devices.

For many people, e-mail is an extention of their business. Although e-mail can be quite fast, it is no replacement for other media. Unfortunatly, it can also mean that you get the same level of SPAM, otherwise useless e-mail and non-urgent e-mail in your mobile inbox. Due to the smaller screen you might be less capable of dealing with them quickly, making mobile e-mail counterproductive. It is therefore wise to make sure unnecessary e-mail will not make it to your mobile inbox, allowing you to focus on your priorities.

Text Messages

Text messaging was introduced as part of the GSM standard and is called SMS (Short Message Service). It's pretty fast, but it has a limited size (160 characters per message), allows only text to be sent and due to the nature of most mobile-phone keybords, it's not the most convient way of sending larger messages. It does not provide any guarantee to when the SMS will be delivered, but one can request reciepts of delivery. On Windows Mobile Phone Edition devices SMS messages can be found and created from the SMS inbox, which is located in Pocket Outlook.

Instant Messaging (IM)

IM allows you to chat with other (known) users using short text messages. Added benefit of IM-platforms is that they provide you with presence and status signalling: it shows other users if you are present, that you want to be disturbed or that you are on a break. This makes this medium quite suitable for non-intrusive "discussion" between one or more people. Currently, the most popular IM-client is without doubt MSN Messenger from Microsoft. The standard MSN Messenger on Windows Mobile just allows you to connect to MSN Messenger, but not to ICQ, Yahoo Messenger and AOL Messenger. There are Instant Messaging applications that can connect between multiple messaging platforms.

Phonecalls

The phone is an old concept, although the use has changed much due to the introduction of mobile phones. People can literally be around the globe without you knowing it. Phonecalls are generally more intruisive to the recieving end, since they have to pick it up to deal with it immediatly. Number recognition does allow for manual or automatic screening, but it might be intrusive anyway.

Voice Over IP (VOIP)

VOIP mixes instant messaging with the phone. It allows for presence/status signalling but allows voice communication to take place. Therefor it is a very non-intrusive way of communicating. It requires faster conection speeds. If you want to use VOIP, you have to have speeds of UMTS or Wireless LAN.