Comments on: Who Needs “Push” E-Mail?

By: Shawn Levasseur

Shawn Levasseur — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:01:00 +0000

Push e-mail isn’t as much a big deal as push calendering and contacts. It makes syncing them a much easier process. It’s these two items that will get me to subscribe to Mobile Me.

By: Podophile

Podophile — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:09:23 +0000

Yes, you’re absolutely right. There’s no question that many professionals live and die by their ability to react to information quickly, and push email is a necessity. I guess I was thinking more about push email “for the rest of us.” For most people, I suspect their .Mac (or Me.com) email address will be their personal email account, and for personal email I see the potential for distraction far outweighing the benefits of instant notification.

Maybe I’m out of the mainstream on this. Maybe I get more email than most people. Maybe I just like to be left alone.

Whatever the case, I’ll probably be addicted to push email by August.

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:07:10 +0000

I’ll tell you where push email has it’s place: in the hands of network administrators and many other types of IT workers.

If a server goes down or encounters a critical problem, I need to know about it that second. I can’t wait 5 or 15 minutes or even manually to check for email alerts. This is why I still have a Blackberry and not a 1st gen iPhone.

Also, think of an IT group that needs to monitor emails for trouble tickets and the likes. If a matter is so urgent, would it really be best to call one person, or email a group of 5 people at once who will all get notified right away on their devices?

There is definitely a place for push email. It just comes down to occupation and purpose.