System and method of retrieving electronic mail

1. A mobile communications system comprising:

a mobile device having a mail user agent; and a mobile office platform operative with the mail user agent for accessing a plurality of electronic mailboxes of the mail user agent using a plurality of protocol specific connectors,

said mobile office platform is operative for downloading and providing only the n-most recent mail headers of electronic messages to the mail user agent in a default order of mail headers provided by an electronic mail protocol used for accessing an electronic mailbox when said electronic mail protocol used for accessing the electronic mailbox specifies a default message list order and when said electronic mail protocol does not specify the default message list order,

then using stored associative information of an electronic mail provider or said electronic mailboxes and downloading and providing n-most recent mail headers in an order based on the stored associative information about an electronic mail provider and said electronic mailboxes to be accessed, and

when said associative information cannot be used, then downloading all mail headers for the electronic mailboxes and sorting the mail headers and extracting only the n-most recent mail messages and delivering the n-most recent mail messages to the mail user agent.

2. The mobile communications system according to claim 1 , wherein said message header comprises a unique identifier (UID) of an electronic mail message.

3. The mobile communications system according to claim 1 , and further comprising a database associated with said mobile office platform and containing records of associative information for electronic mail providers and/or electronic mailboxes to be accessed.

4. The mobile communications system according to claim 1 , wherein said associative information comprises the name of the electronic mail protocol used for accessing an electronic mailbox

5. The mobile communications system according to claim 1 , wherein said associative information comprises the version of the electronic mail protocol used for accessing an electronic mailbox.

6. The mobile communications system according to claim 1 , wherein said associative information comprises the name of the electronic mail server.

7. The mobile communications system according to claim 6 , wherein the name of the electronic mail server is applicable to a specific electronic mail protocol used for accessing an electronic mailbox.

8. The mobile communications system according to claim 1 , wherein said associative information comprises the domain name of an internet service provider used for accessing electronic mailboxes.

9. The mobile communications system according to claim 1 , wherein said mobile device comprises a wireless device.

10. The mobile communications system according to claim 1 , wherein said mail user agent is operative for accessing the mobile office platform using a POP, IMAP or webmail protocol.

11. The mobile communications system according to claim 1 , wherein said plurality of protocol specific connectors comprise a POP connector for accessing POP mailboxes, an IMAP connector for accessing IMAP mailboxes, or a connector for accessing mail from an Exchange server.

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

a mobile office platform operative with a mail user agent of a mobile device for accessing a plurality of electronic mailboxes using a plurality of protocol specific connectors; and

said mobile office platform is operative for downloading and providing to the mail user agent only 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 when said electronic mail protocol used for accessing the electronic mailbox specifies a default message list order and when said electronic mail protocol does not specify the default message list order,

then using stored associative information of an electronic mail provider or said electronic mailboxes and downloading and providing n-most recent mail headers in an order based on the stored associative information about an electronic mail provider and said electronic mailboxes to be accessed, and

when said associative information cannot be used, then downloading all mail headers for the electronic mailboxes and sorting the mail headers and extracting only the n-most recent mail messages and delivering the n-most recent mail messages to the mail user agent.

13. A method of retrieving electronic mail in a mobile communications system according to claim 12 , wherein said message header comprises a unique identifier of an electronic mail message.

14. A method of retrieving electronic mail in a mobile communications system according to claim 12 , and further comprising the step of storing associative information within a database.

15. A method of retrieving electronic mail in a mobile communications system according to claim 12 , wherein said associative information comprises the name of the electronic mail protocol used for accessing an electronic mailbox.

16. A method of retrieving electronic mail in a mobile communications system according to claim 12 , wherein said associative information comprises the version of the electronic mail protocol used for accessing an electronic mailbox.

17. A method of retrieving electronic mail in a mobile communications system according to claim 12 , wherein said associative information comprises the name of the electronic mail server.

18. A method of retrieving electronic mail in a mobile communications system according to claim 17 , wherein the name of the electronic mail server is applicable to a specific electronic mail protocol used for accessing an electronic mailbox.

19. A method of retrieving electronic mail in a mobile communications system according to claim 12 , wherein said associative information comprises the domain name of an internet service provider used for accessing electronic mailboxes.