Apple had discussed that a new type of push service would be available for developers so that data could be pushed to a users iPhone. They had planned to release this new technology last year in September, but didn’t for technical reasons. Specifically they called it PNS, which would be separate from MobileMe and and EAS (Exchange Active Sync). This additional push technology would allow any type of message or data to be push to a users iPhone.

For instance, if an application required updating, instead of the application sitting in the background and always checking for updates. A simple push message from the AppStore or developers site/servers to a users iPhone would let the user know by placing a marker on the applications icon. Similar to the AppStore icon when there are updates.

Apple Insider has an article about PNS and Snow Leopard in which it discuss how Apple will be implementing PNS in Snow Leopard. Heres a excerpt.

While Snow Leopard’s Mail, iCal, and Address Book are set to gaining high profile support for Exchange Server messaging, they’re also being updated to support open push messaging with Apple’s own Snow Leopard Server. Rather than being based on EAS, Apple’s own server push products are based on interoperable, open standards, the same as PNS.

Apple’s iCal Server, which the company debuted both in Leopard Server and as an open source CalDAV calendar server project, is being updated to use XMPP publish-subscribe, an IETF open standard branching from the core of the Jabber IM service. That means Snow Leopard’s iCal Server 2 will push calendar updates to clients using extended instant messages, making it an inherently push service. Like IMAP-IDLE, the system only sends a lightweight notification that new data has arrived, leaving iCal to fetch the new data itself in response.

In contrast, Microsoft’s Exchange Server handles calendar events and other data as specially formatted emails, requiring additional infrastructure (RIM’ BES or Microsoft’s EAS) to supply push functionality for immediate updates. That also requires Microsoft to support a separate set of protocols when talking to desktop clients (MAPI) and mobile devices (EAS).

What will ever come of PNS, well it all depends on when Apple provides the support on the iPhone, Snow Leopard and the iPhone SDK. Only then we will see the true availability of the PNS and its features.

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