Phil Schiller, head of worldwide marketing for the maker of the iPhone, iPod and Mac line of computers, announced yesterday at Apple's headquarters the long-awaited (and long-feared by others) interoperability with corporate email systems such as Microsoft Exchange.

"The iPhone can now work directly with the Exchange server," Schiller said, adding that it would enable corporate e-mail, contacts and calendars, Reuters reports. "We have licensed the ActiveSync protocol [from Microsoft]," said Schiller.

ActiveSync enables pushing of e-mail and calendar items from servers to the iPhone, synchronization of contact lists, and enforcing of security policies. Apple demonstrated at the event the technology, which will soon be available to the public.

The new capabilities will be allegedly delivered via a 2.0 software update due in June. At that time, Apple's successful gadget will also get enterprise-friendly security features, including remote wipe, support for Cisco IPsec VPN, certificates, identities, and WPA2/802.11x support.

Apple is already testing the enterprise features in beta phase to be offered in the 2.0 firmware with large corporations such as Genentech, Nike and Disney.

"The iPhone now fits a lot better in the enterprise and can compete effectively against RIM and Nokia," said Simon Yates, an analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., as quoted by the Washington Post.

Meanwhile, it's certain that Research in Motion will not give up on its market dominance. RIM has already built a “network operations center,” or NOC, an expensive facility that enables it to offer heightened security, among other features.

RIM is also fighting back Motorola over patent infringement related to wireless technology and anticompetitive conduct in royalty fees, the company announced. The Canadian BlackBerry-maker says that Motorola charges "exorbitant" licensing fees while refusing to acknowledge or pay royalties for certain patents held by RIM.

It remains to be seen whether Apple will manage to woo users who have used for years Blackberry devices. I personally think it will have some success, but it will be hard to prevail over a long-standing and somewhat reliable solution.