Your friend gets a gooseberry, or was that a blueberry? Then you remember, it’s a blackberry!

So you rush down to the shop to get one. They’re really cool. David Beckham has one! It’s a mobile phone that also lets you send and receive email.

Now you want your email set up. But discover you can’t have your office email delivered to it. Instead, it has to be forwarded to a wacky new email address.

And then, you were out last week and emailed a client. But it isn’t in your sent items. It was sent from your wacky new email address instead. It’s now in the sent items of what has now become most definitely a gooseberry.

Now people are emailing you on your gooseberry and your normal office address. It’s becoming a bit confusing!

And you also find you’re keeping your diary on your gooseberry as well as in your calendar on your PC at work. You have to keep cross-referencing both your email and your calandar.

So you go and ask your IT people about getting your Blackberry working with your proper email address. It turns out you need a Blackberry file server. And a ton of expensive software.

If You Haven’t Bought One Yet There Is Some Good News

You don’t need any of that hassle. While Blackberry are streets ahead in the marketing game and loss-leading deals to make you buy one, the total cost of ownership of a Windows-based device begins to make more sense.

They’re not as heavily discounted up-front. But they are sigificantly cheaper to run. Over a 3 year period, research suggests your Microsoft-based solution is between 15 and 24% cheaper.

Most small businesses already have the software running at the office to hook up a Windows mobile device within a few minutes.

Your email will come in to your inbox at your desk AND on your mobile. When you’re out and about and email someone, it is also stored in your sent items back at the office.

And your calendar stays synchronised so the confusion is ended.

The Windows Mobile solution also gives you a mini-version of Word, Excel and now PowerPoint. So you can open attachments, PDFs etc.

I wouldn’t advise writing a novel or a long document on them, but it is possible. What’s more useful is being able to open a document or spreadsheet, make the odd change, and email it on.

So What Do You Buy?

This is down to personal taste. You may want one which can slip into a hand-bag or trouser pocket easily. Or you may prefer one with a proper keyboard. Whatever your personal taste, they now come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes.

Some are similar to a Blackberry. While others are smaller with touch screens and hand-writing recognition. Others look like mini-laptops with side-sliding or swivel/fold keyboards.

We Don’t Supply Them, But Here’s What To Do

Check out a few sites, and in the UK, check out the Microsoft Mobile Device site as a starting point.

From that, check out the various devices. When you find one you want, make sure you talk to the mobile provider about tariffs. Apart from a call tariff, you will also need a fixed data tariff.

The beauty of email on the move is that you do not pay for the time you are connected, but for the amount of data you transfer. You can get some very competitive tariffs on data, and unless you are a prolific emailer, you will only pay a few pounds a month.

Speak to your IT guy or the company that supports you for advice on what to buy - preferably before you sign your contract! Once you have the mobile you want, it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to have it up and running.

Now, you can take that holiday you wanted knowing you can keep on top of important emails in your absense. And if you want, reply to them!

I’ve had clients successfully use them all over the world. I’ve had favourable reports about cost and coverage when used in Hong Kong, USA, the Carribean and most of Europe.

Don’t be a gooseberry! Choose a device for it’s practicality and total cost of ownership - not it’s looks or to follow a trend!

** UPDATE ** 73% of workers say they have seen an improvement in their work/life balance as a result of using mobile technologies. Taken from Mobile working improves work-life balance.

And when you add in the effect of being able to work fully from home, it begins to add up to a wise choice. And when you consider that a 30 minute trip to the office equates to 33 working days a year spent on the road, it begins to make sense - more on working from home.