System and method of retrieving electronic mail

A mobile communications system comprising:

• a mobile device;
• and
• a mobile office platform operative with the mobile device for accessing a plurality of electronic mailboxes,
• when an electronic mail protocol used for accessing the electronic mailbox specifies a default message list order, the mobile office platform is operative for downloading and providing the n-most recent mail headers of electronic messages to the mobile device;
• and
• when the electronic mail protocol does not specify the default message list order, the mobile office platform is operative for using stored associative information about an electronic mail provider or the electronic mailboxes to download and provide the n-most recent mail headers;
• and
• when the associative information cannot be used, the mobile office platform is operative for downloading all mail headers for the electronic mailboxes and providing the n-most recent mail messages to the mobile device.

A mobile communications system comprising:

• a server operative with a mobile device configured to access a plurality of electronic mailboxes;
• a database associated with the server and containing associative information about an electronic mail provider and electronic mailboxes;
• when an electronic mail protocol used for accessing the electronic mailbox specifies a default message list order, the server is operative for downloading and providing the n-most recent mail headers of electronic messages to the mobile device and when the electronic mail protocol does not specify the default message list order,
• the server is operative for using the stored associative information about the electronic mail provider or the electronic mailboxes to download and provide the n-most recent mail headers, and
• when the associative information cannot be used, the server is operative for downloading all mail headers for the electronic mailboxes and providing the n-most recent mail messages to the mobile device.

A method of retrieving electronic mail in a mobile communications system, the method comprising the steps of:

• a mobile office platform operative with a mobile device for accessing a plurality of electronic mailboxes;
• and
• when an electronic mail protocol used for accessing the electronic mailbox specifies a default message list order, the mobile office platform is operative for downloading and providing to the mobile device the n-most recent mail headers of electronic mail messages in a default order of mail headers provided by an electronic mail protocol used for accessing an electronic mailbox, and when the electronic mail protocol does not specify the default message list order,
• the mobile office platform is operative for using stored associative information about an electronic mail provider or the electronic mailboxes to download and provide the n-most recent mail headers, and
• when the associative information cannot be used, the mobile office platform is operative for downloading all mail headers for the electronic mailboxes and providing the n-most recent mail messages to the mail user agent.