Patent ID: 7003552

Claim:
An information processing apparatus having a system control unit that receives email through a line and stores and manages the email and a slave control unit that controls communication with a slave apparatus, the information processing apparatus comprising: a storage device included in the slave control unit, adapted to store, in the slave control unit, a list of email stored in the system control unit in accordance with a request from the slave apparatus, the list of email comprising information which shows whether mail text has already been read or is unread; a list transmission device included in the slave control unit, adapted to transmit the list stored by said storage device from the slave control unit to the slave apparatus; a request device included in the slave control unit, adapted to request, to the system control unit, transmission of mail text; a mail text transmission device included in the system control unit, adapted to transmit corresponding mail text to the slave control unit in accordance with a request by said request device; and a management device included in the system control unit, adapted to manage corresponding mail as a state of already having been read when the corresponding mail text is transmitted by mail text transmission device, wherein the system control unit and the slave control unit are installed in the same housing.