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Apple working on improved Exchange support for iPhone

Apple is working on improving the iPhone's support of Microsoft's Exchange email platform, which could finally deliver true syncing capabilities, a new company job posting has revealed.

The undated listing seeks a "motivated, highly-technical Exchange test/sync engineer with excellent problem solving and communication skills."

"You will join a dynamic team responsible for qualifying the latest iPhone products," the company wrote. "Your focus will be testing Exchange and Outlook functionality with Apple’s innovative new phone."

Thus far, the iPhone's official support of Exchange has been limited to IMAP functionality under certain conditions. The lack of full support for the Microsoft platform is commonly cited as one of the primary barriers to adoption of the Apple handset by businesses, as Exchange is widely deployed as the email solution of choice amongst the corporate world.

Though speculative, Apple's reference to sync engineers may indicate that work is being done to deliver support for ActiveSync, which would allow the iPhone to synchronize email, calendar items and contacts with Exchange servers. Potential iPhone buyers who rely on Exchange in the workplace have have singled out the omission of ActiveSync support as the limiting factor in their decision to hold off on purchasing the Apple handset.

In a recent web poll, 98 percent of respondents said support for ActiveSync or some other form of Exchange synchronization would greatly influence their decision to eventually purchase an iPhone.