Odyssey is, of course, evaluating RIM BlackBerry, the leading smartphone platform in corporate America. According to Gentile, it looks like Odyssey can achieve close to, if not the same depth, of control with BlackBerry smartphones as it does with Windows Mobile models.

What isn't clear to us is what Odyssey can offer in the way of mobile device management for BlackBerry models that RIM doesn't already do with BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

Gentile said his company should be able to provide nearly the same level of support for Symbian (mostly Nokia) smartphones as with the BlackBerry.

As for the two of the newest and hottest smartphone platforms, Google Android and Apple iPhone, Gentile said these are more restricted than the others, so support with Athena becomes more difficult. Palm's brand new webOS, first used in the its Pre model from Sprint, and the ancient Palm OS didn't even come up as options.

He has a lot more hope that Odyssey will eventually be able to bring Athena to Android than the iPhone.

That's because Android is more open, to a point. Gentile noted how the Android SDK sandboxes applications, which from a security perspective is good, but does not give access to resources outside of the sandbox. To manage an Android phone effectively, a mobile device management solution must be able to get information at a lower level.

Gentile is not worried about Android yet, as shipments are still relatively low. He hopes to be ready for them once sales rise and they start to appear in greater numbers in the enterprise, however.

He's not so bullish on the Odyssey's prospects for the iPhone. It is just that Apple is, well, a bit too controlling about what resources it gives developers access to, a real problem for when it comes to device management.

Apple "has a very Machiavellian approach about what they will or won't allow," Gentile explained. It's not a technical issue at all, as the iPhone is fully capable of running applications in the background, which Athena requires to do its job. But apple won't allow it. And the new push notification feature, brought to the iPhone with OS 3.0, simply won't cut it for mobile device management in Gentile's view.

For example, even something as simple as taking a software inventory, you can't do that as a developer for the iPhone right now. Apple knows the list for iTunes purposes. But an IT manager being asked to support iPhones cannot. This simply won't do for the enterprise.

See here for Part II of this feature, where Gentile delves into his company's Seven Principles of Mobile Device Management in detail.