Get Outook 2007 & push e-mail for less than Outlook alone

Not sure when they updated it, but 4Smartphone.net now offers a licensed download of Outlook 2007 with their top two hosted Exchange plans. What this means is: for $84 annually (the Professional plan), you get a hosted Exchange service, direct push e-mail support, 1 GB of storage capacity for your mail, nightly backups and Outlook 2007 included. The reason I mentioned this is because I was looking at the price of Outlook 2007 alone. In the retails stores, I've seen the price hovering around $110, while a recent Amazon check shows it at $90.

If you're in the market for a hosted Exchange provider (or the Outlook 2007 software), do some research because you can get the whole kit-and-kaboodle for less than the software alone!

Comments

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Kevin, I just checked the 4smartphone website and it's still showing Outlook 2003 for Professional and Enterprise service plans.

[Dave Beauvais]

It says that, but once you log into your account, the download is, in fact, a fully licensed copy of Outlook 2007.

That said, given last Friday's catastrophic server failure which they are *still* recovering from, I am extremely hesitant to recommend them to anyone at this point. I haven't had my e-mail, contacts, calendar, or tasks since last Friday night when one (or more) of their servers crashed. All I have since Friday is what was cached on my notebook and is present on my XV6700. At this point my Exchange account is empty except for messages from 4SmartPhone staff and I don't know what to expect if I try to sync, so I haven't tried. I've redirected my e-mail elsewhere until things stabilize a bit.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Thanks for the info Dave. I was going to post this on PocketPCThoughts, but I'll hold off until things settle down.

[Jeroen]

Hi - 4smartphone is great value with generous storage, full features & indeed now includes Outlook 2007, I downloaded it a few weeks back when they started offering it. I discovered 4smartphone through a recommendation on this site and have enjoyed the increased productivity and value for money it has so far provided me.

However the server failure has hit me hard as well. Back in February there was a failure of a couple of days, but the new one has lasted more than 4 days for me. Things came back up again early Wednesday and I didn't loose anything when the dust had settled, but now (Thursday morning CET) my Outlook disconnected again and can't get it back online, neither can I access Outlook Web Access anymore - similar symptoms as Friday when it first happened.

I'm letting 4smarthpone download my mail from my pop3 account with my ISP; I also have a PC at home with Outlook Express that downloads all pop3 messages as well and leaves 5 days of messages on my pop3 account. That way, even if 4smartphone is down, I know I have a backup of all my incoming mail on my PC at home, and I can access the last 5 days of mail using my ISP's webmail interface.

I trust the 4smartphone guys are doing their best, but I'd gladly pay a few dollars a month extra for more reliable/redundant service. I appreciate the free month they've added to my subscription, but I don't think I'll stay with them if a third failure happens.

[Kevin C. Tofel]

Thanks for the comments here; I had wondered what was up with the service because the website was down for me a few days ago. I was trying to get my settings to set up an Entourage client. I had no disruption in service, so I didn't realize there was an issue until you all commented. I sincerely hope that they make things right for you; FWIW, I've used their service for nearly a year and really haven't had any issues.

One tip/trick I use: I actually use kctofel@gmail.com as my 4Smartphone e-mail address and have all of my mail forwarded from Gmail. I do this so that I have a second (searchable) backup right on the web of all my mail. Doesn't help the service issues that you're going through per se, but it adds another layer of comfort.

[Mitchell Oke]

That's something I love about gmail, the ability to forward a copy of my email to another address. I use the gmail interface for my email, but have a copy forwarded to the email address provided by my carrier. I get unlimited emails and attachments on this account, so the forwarding works brilliant for me. I have outlook on my desktop computer that I every so often run to download a copy of the messages from my gmail account just incase something happens to the online ones. the 700MB and growing pst file is a wonderful backup.

I considered 4smartphone over a year ago, but at that time I didn't have a data plan so it was too costly for me. I have since moved from 10MB to 200MB and now 1GB dataplan on my treo but the fact that I get an unlimited email account from my carrier makes pushing that send/receive button worth it.