James Siminoff

Is Push still relevant?

My first blackberry was a cosmic shift in my mobile experience.  Going from wireless email that polled vs. one that pushed was life changing.  The difference is that polling is set for a increment, say 15 minutes, while push sends email in real time as it is received.

When I switched to the iPhone I set it up for push email using the Microsoft Exchange back end.  The problem was that setting up the iPhone for push killed the battery.

So while looking for a new solution I started using the Gmail mobile website to access my mail.  I have now been accessing my mail on the mobile that way for over 6 months and I love it.

A few things have changed that have made both push and polling unnecessary.  It used to be nice to know when a email came in so that you could deal with it.  Now I get enough email, or too much, that it is more when I can look at it not if I have any.

The other big change is the interruption of constant email.  When I am in a meeting or doing something I do not want to be buzzed by a email every minute.  It is distracting.  By controlling when I look at email I am able to be more attentive when I need to be. 

While email is a really efficient way of communicating it is just no longer time sensitive for me.