- 5.1 Why Push Is Important to BlackBerry Developers
- 5.2 How the Application Data Push Process Works
- 5.3 Common Questions About Push
- 5.4 Pushing to Internal Versus External Users
- 5.5 Additional Resources
5.4 Pushing to Internal Versus External Users
Chapters 6 and 7 cover the options for pushing to both internal and external push recipients. The two types of recipients (target devices) differ in how the push application can reach them.
Internal recipients are BlackBerry users whose device has been activated against a corporate BES. The devices have a BlackBerry Enterprise data plan from their wireless carrier, get corporate email and other PIM data synchronized wirelessly via the BES and have access to internal systems via MDS.
Until recently, data push was only available to internal recipients. RIM recently released products that support pushing data to external recipients (either personal or consumer devices) through Web Signals and the Java Push APIs.
External recipients refer to users whose BlackBerry devices are not under the direct control of the organization pushing the data. They might be BES connected users, but they would be connected to a BES located inside some other corporation's firewall. The external user definition also covers mobile, BlackBerry-carrying users who might only use their device to access personal email accounts and web browsing through the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS).