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Sparrow seems to be going down the wrong path. They say they don't have server side expertise so they are promoting a solution that the iPhone clearly isn't meant for.

Simple solution, hire someone who understands secure backend infrastructure, wire up the push notifications, and charge a small monthly fee for the service. If they could convert a small percentage of their user base, they'd make their investment back and more.

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I disagree here. The iPhone already supports this functionality for VoIP applications: they maintain a persistent TCP connection in the background and when you get a call the app is activated again.

The way email push works (IMAP IDLE) is the same: the client opens a TCP connection to the server which remains idle and the server 'pushes' data over that connection.

I think it's reasonable to ask for the same functionality for a different purpose.

Actually, maybe there's a much easier solution: Integrate Sparrow iphone app directly with Boxcar notification. Plug my boxcar account in and they can handle the rest.

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