Conclusion
I've been living with OMS for a while now, and find it to be pretty useful for notifications. I have always had Outlook remind me of meetings and appointments by popping up a reminder on my desktop. With OMS, those same reminders appear on my mobile too, which comes in real handy when I'm out in the lab or otherwise away from my desk for extended periods. And I like getting a summary of the next day's schedule delivered to my phone so I don't have to get to my PC to find out when my first appointment is in the morning.

I find OMS less useful for working with email messages. Getting a single text message on my phone to show me that an email from someone important has arrived is very useful. Actually reading emails delivered by OMS is difficult and not very practical. That's a limitation of the SMS text message format rather than a failing of OMS, but still a drawback to using this service for email.

The value of this product depends heavily on what you are looking for. If you are hoping for the full experience of Outlook 2007 on your mobile device, you will be disappointed. If, however, you spend a lot of time away from your computer, and want a simple and inexpensive way to get Outlook notifications and calendar information on your mobile phone, Outlook Mobile Service may be exactly the service you need. For this purpose, we give OMS four stars.

OUR RATING: 4 of 5

Francine Otterson is the President of the San Diego Outlook User Group and a Microsoft Outlook MVP. She has been in the IT industry for over 10 years, providing technical support, software customization solutions and training in corporate settings, and as a consultant. She balances her work around her daughter and husband in sunny San Diego, California.