Blackberry killer. That’s Microsoft’s hope for its new ActiveSync Direct Push Technology in Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 for Windows Mobile 5.0. Gives non-Windows handsets fast Blackberry-like access to all your Exchange stuff: messages, schedules, contacts, tasks lists, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Allegedly works with darned near everything and everybody Microsoft licenses.

What’s direct push? At the risk of triggering a flame war, direct push allows a mail server to push email to the remote computer, instead of waiting for the remote to ask for it.

Redmond thinks ActiveSync with Direct Push Technology will finally bring it within spitting distance of Chatter and, hope-of-all-hopes, surpass hosted services like Blackberry and Good. The company’s ace-in-the-hole… all-in-one-box convenience… makes lots of network managers giddy enough to bite. More security-minded admins may choose to wait. Windows Mobile 5.0 has been FIPS 140-2 certified. Its encryption method is OK for use by the U.S. Government. Unfortunately, its message transport system is not.

Thus far, only DataViz has released a product that works with Microsoft’s Direct Push Technology, and it’s in beta. RoadSync software supports Symbian UIQ, Symbian Series 60, Symbian Series 80, Palm OS and Java-based players, including Sony Ericsson P910, Palm Treo, Nokia 9300 and Motorola Razr. In addition, Microsoft says Direct Push will soon work with Palm 650/700/LifeDrive, Motorola A780, Motorola A910, Nokia and Symbian OS. Of course, it all depends on what the meaning of the word “soon” is. The new Treo has passed FCC muster and is expected come January. Many of the others are imminent.

But some users can’t wait. One Palm-spurned buyer at You Had Me At EHLO writes: “Now I need to change my focus to identifying an appropriate alternative device (we need a dozen)… All I’ve learned so far is they won’t be Treos sporting any number.”

Others are twistedly optimistic, as in “They’ve been a joke, but I’ll try it because I have no other options.” For instance, at TreoCentral, gex notes: “Up until now lets just say that what MS has offered has really really sucked. Did it work? Yeah. Was it a good solution? No. Could I recommend it? Absolutely not. This is their third attempt at providing a Blackberry type service and I think they finally may have something useable and at a level of service expected from Blackberry users.”

And nrosser predicts, “If you’re a middleware provider, or even device OS provider, your days are numbered.”

Nevertheless, most observers agree that, if your mobile’s implementation of ActiveSync protocol takes advantage of the new direct push features in Exchange 2003 SP2… and your service provider efficiently supports it… Exchange ActiveSync Direct Push Technology may do the trick. But like all things Microsoft, it will take awhile to work itself out.

While you’re waiting for that to happen, you have plenty of time to find a real nice Christmas present for your Blackberry rep. For this year… and next year… and the year after that…