What fields in Outlook sync to your phone?

As with most things related to technology, there are sometimes multiple standards.  What does this mean?  That depends on the what you are talking about.  And, in some cases, like the world wide web page language, HTML, there has been no official standard since version 4.01 which was adopted back in May of 2000.  The fun part is there isn't a single web browser I am aware of that can pass a test of the 4.01 strict standards adopted nearly 9 years ago, not one!

What does this have to do with Outlook syncing with your cell phone?  Well, Outlook is pretty much the de facto standard when it comes to cell phones.  All cell phones that have the ability to sync, will sync with Outlook.  But, and this is an important "but," they don't all sync the same fields!  Some phones sync more Outlook fields than others.  Not even a Windows Mobile 6 phone will sync all phone numbers for example.  I made a list of 3 phones I am familiar with and a list of all phone numbers Outlook has fields for:

As you can see, even the Windows Mobile 6 phone only sync's 63% of the phone numbers.  All three will sync the 3 addresses Outlook has available.  And, while the TREO and the Mobile 6 phone will sync Contacts, Calendar Items, and Tasks, the iPhone doesn't sync tasks.  95% of things I create to remind me to do things in Outlook are Tasks.  Birthdays, anniversaries, meetings, etc. are usually appointment items which go in the calendar and aren't considered "tasks" by Outlook.

So, while we have a nearly universal standard to go by, Outlook, even mobile versions of Outlook, won't sync everything.  The tasks item is very important because you can show stages of completion in a task item.  A task might consist of doing 4 things and you can easily show that you have completed 2 of the 4 by marking the task item 50% complete.  Why did Apple completely ignore the task items?  Geek stupidity I suppose, but stupidity none-the-less.  No one, especially not Apple, could actually believe that everyone who buys an iPhone owns a MAC... right?  Outlook running on a MAC has tasks right?

In Outlook 2003 there are 141 default contact fields.  Some are just flags noting a selection, but the majority are actual data fields.  Windows Mobile 6 can only sync 69 fields, and not all of them are Outlook contact fields.  Even so, that's less than 1/2 which seems a little pathetic for something that is a mobile version of Outlook.  In this day where cheap memory is normal, why would a mobile device only sync 15 or so categories at this point?  Seems a little dumb to me, and can be irritating to be sure.  And what's up with Windows Mobile having 3 IM addresses?  Outlook only has 1.  Who design's this stuff anyway?  Hello?

The main point of this article is that when you purchase a phone, and you sync your phone with Outlook, find out what fields are going to be supported, and exactly what is going to sync.  If you don't, you may be upset when you find out that things are missing.  You can compensate to a degree by using another field to hold a default data field in Outlook you want to bring with you on your phone, but should you have to?  I say no.  Are you listening Apple? Microsoft?  Phone engineers?  Software engineers?  And what about those people who review these phones?  Do you actually test the phones the way a real person does?  Partly it seems, but not very thorough to be sure.  Tester's seem to be blinded by the bells and whistles.  Let's not forget we need substance.

We aren't in the stone age here are we?  Well at least I'm not... LOL  As business people we rely on our phones for many things.  Be careful when choosing one, it might bite.

 Larry Perry
 RealeSeller™ Transforms Outlook Into a "Genuine Real Estate CRM Application"
 Our Online RealeSeller training classes are FREE!
 Phone: (972) 514-3218
 Email: Larry@realeseller.com
 Web: www.realeseller.com
 Blog: The Real Blog
 Exchange Server: 123Together.com