Is BES needed? I want more privacy. Simple comparison to iPhone

[shadysprings]

I have my on Blackberry using BES connected to my companies exchange server. For the past 2 years, i thought I had to use BES to be sync'd up to outlook email and calendar.

I casually was playing with my sons iPhone and the Microsoft exchange mail utility and BAM! the phone was totally sync'd up to my company outlook and calendar.

So why do I need BES? Can't I use BIS and have the same sync'ing capabilities as BES? And doesn't this provide me with privacy now? I don't believe with BIS my company can set policies on my Blackberry, view call logs, emails, etc.

Am I missing something? There are so many people here at crackberry concerned with BES privacy. Can't we all just switch to BIS and take back our Blackberry's privacy back?

[GlenB]

BIS will sync only your email Inbox and sent items with Exchange via OWA. It will not sync contacts, calendar, etc.

[shadysprings]

Originally Posted by GlenB

BIS will sync only your email Inbox and sent items with Exchange via OWA. It will not sync contacts, calendar, etc.

I've been researching why everything works so well on the iPhone. iPhone comes with ActiveSync on the phone. This sync's email, calendar, contacts, and tasks. Very nice. So it's neither BES or BIS. Now I'm trying to find ActiveSync for the BB 9700. So far the only one I found is $50 per year. I'm hoping for the same price as iPhone, free.