Google Apps Connector Announced for BlackBerry Smartphones

The Google Apps Enterprise team announced that it planned to release Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which should allow BlackBerry mobile phone owners to use applications that they are already familiar with, including the BlackBerry built-in email, calendar, and address book applications, with Google Apps.

What users can currently do from their BlackBerry devices is to check mail from Google's Gmail service, but the feature is not too refined, while Google Apps Connector is expected to offer a better integration with Research in Motion's BlackBerry technology. What it can actually do is sync emails from the server with those on the device, allowing users to star, archive, and file messages in folders either from Gmail or from their BlackBerry smartphone.

As many of you might already know, Google Apps includes Gmail, Google Calendar, and more, being a solution for enterprise messaging and collaboration, and the Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server is meant to provide a seamless experience while connecting Google Apps and the built-in BlackBerry smartphone applications.

To be more precise, all the changes one makes in its BlackBerry Calendar will be automatically updated on Google Calendar, and the other way around, and the same will happen with emails or the address book, as both personal and business contacts saved on Google Apps will be synced with the BlackBerry smartphone.

IT administrators are also offered full control of the solution so that the transition is seamless. Google Apps Connector installs on BlackBerry Enterprise Server, and syncs email, calendar and contacts for all BlackBerry smartphone users while connecting BES to the Google Apps cloud. While at the moment the new solution is only in beta, it will become available in July free of charge for all Premier and Education Edition customers. The Google team also announced that they would be at WES, where they would present the new solution.