Web Worker Daily

linkerjpatrick says: January 15th, 2008 6:22am

I think it depends on the job of the people in the company. Yes, I know this sounds like the old days and maybe even the current set up with the ad/communications/design department use Macs and everyone else uses PC’s but I think some of the things you mentioned above can be changed. My company is a small but growing design and communications firm and I do have an iPhone. We use it for several reasons;

1.) A test bed for portable media projects we are working on
2.) Customers who will be using it and we can support to a degree
3.) To show off photos and web sites richly
4.) As a networking “conversation piece” – believe it or not this is working out quite well.
5.) To take photos discreetly and easily
6.) and of course the phone and other personal contact apps are very easy to use.

I find I am a lot more productive with certain takes than I was with other phones that had similar features but were harder to access.

Maybe the iPhone is not appropriate for everyone and every business but I could see the following individuals leveraging the features and popularity of the device;

1.) Marketers
2.) Sales people
3.) Photographers (not for serious work but for “spec” or something when the professional equipment is not around

Now if your job is managing servers, accounting or other tasks, yes their are other devices that could be of better use. The iPhone is not really meant for “enterprise” anyway. It’s more of general consumer device like other products in Apple’s niche but I think it can have a place in the work force for certain tasks.

Adam Lindsay says: January 15th, 2008 6:42am

Chalk this up as reason #5023 on why I love working for myself.

linkerjpatrick says: January 15th, 2008 8:04am

Same here Adam!

Dave Lyon says: January 15th, 2008 8:29am

While I agree in general with the reasons and conclusions that iPhones aren’t a perfect fit for enterprises, a couple of things came to mind. I have a vague memory that users of Yahoo Mail were going to get mail pushed to the phone from the iPhone intro at last year’s Macworld. Maybe they were just talking about IMAP. Anyway, the other factor is that the iPhone is cool. And cool things get bought by bosses. Maybe it’s not true of ‘enterprises’, but in many businesses, when the boss brings in his toy to work, and it doesn’t do what he was hoping, things change to support the boss. I’m not saying that’s how it should be or that the above reasons aren’t valid- but not being a good fit for the enterprise will not keep them from infiltrating the enterprise.

Eric says: January 15th, 2008 8:45am

Pitch (via the Microsoft ad dept):

iPhone Platinum Enterprise Plus with Outlook 2008 for Business

jk says: January 15th, 2008 9:11am

What is this, 1998? Are talking about cellphones, Palms, laptops or home PCs used for business work? Because we’ve heard all of this before.

New technologies and form factors designed for consumers are RARELY ready for the enterprise. IT can say that they are not going to support it, but users are going to use them in the enterprise anyway.

Better to exert some oversight and control, find out how the device can really be used productively and actually deliver support to end users than to deliver edicts based on the flimsy issues outlined above.

listen_to_dian says: January 15th, 2008 2:31pm

I am convinced! I used to work for an organization which gives a blackberry to every engineer/marketing person. E-mail support and encryption are a must have.

Traditionally Apple has not done a good job selling to the enterprise. No wonder they missed the basics again.

Its a cool looking shiny device for casual use!

Robert says: January 15th, 2008 2:43pm

*yawn* I prefer my Blackberry anyway…I really don’t see the difference between sliding my thumb down the screen or down a wheel…oh wait, one leaves smudges, the other doesn’t.

Mmm, and QWERTY keyboard with TACTILE feedback. Like someone said, the joys of working for yourself. If some company tried to force an iPhone on me, I’d probably quit.

Paul says: January 16th, 2008 12:54pm

So you (and everyone else hopping on the bandwagon) are telling me the iPhone has issues.

So it does.

So did NT4. So did Mac OS7. So did Win2K. So did XP. So does Vista. So does Outlook. Exchange Server is widely held to be a travesty, but it’s just as widely used, from the small business on up.

We’ve used all of these tools effectively in corporate environments for years despite CRIPPLING inefficiencies, viral threats, malware issues, and a host of other dangers to IT sanity (like users.)

Why not give Apple a chance to expand and evolve their asset?

It’s easier to bag it and feel comfortable with what you know. I understand that.

Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Tom says: January 16th, 2008 12:55pm

You do realise that you just said the equivalent of ‘This plum isn’t a very good orange.’

The iPhone was never marketed as a corporate tool. It’s a consumer device. You can’t even *buy* one if your number is registered with AT&T via a business account.

What a lame attempt at getting page views. “Oh I know, I’ll write about the iPhone! I’ll just make up some tripe!”

jake says: January 16th, 2008 1:14pm

It’s so funny to hear people who will defend the iphone, no matter how crappy it is. Sure, it’s cool to surf the web with, but that is the last thing most people need their phone for. Email and text much with your phone? The iphone is barely better than my 12 button nokia at typing emails. And I can type text/email on my old nokia without looking, something you can never do with an iphone. This product has so many drawbacks for business users, it’s really just a toy for kids. Steve would have done himself a favor by not releasing the iphone before it was even close to ready. If you want a phone that looks cool and has a crappy mp3 player, buy an iphone. If you want a phone that can do email and calendaring, do not buy an iphone. This product is the biggest disappointment of 2007, I’m not sure why so many people think it’s so great. It requires two hands to use, no battery life, terrible text messaging (no multimedia messaging, that’s right, you can’t text pictures to people), proprietary headphone jack. The thing is a piece of shit. First and last Apple product I will ever buy.

jake says: January 16th, 2008 1:16pm

BTW, my AT&T number was setup with a biz account and I setup my iphone without issue.

Harry says: January 16th, 2008 1:22pm

does she work for microsoft by any chance

Mike Bentley says: January 16th, 2008 1:33pm

They charge 300 bucks for that article? That is marvelous!

Look, I buy products that give me an edge. I did buy an iPhone, and I’m more than satisfied with how things are working out so far.

Kendall Gelner says: January 16th, 2008 1:34pm

1) Of course the iPhone supports encryption. You can use SSL with email just fine, and there are a number of other aspects of the device that make use of encryption (including a VPN client).

2) It seems trite to complain about something that will be addressed in just a matter of weeks (third party applications)

3) Can’t wipe the device remotely… why does this matter? Email is not held on the device, it’s fetched from the server. As long as you have a policy that user enable the PIN there’s very little risk since no data is held on the device itself.

4) When the battery kicks the bucket – you just take it to an Apple store, and get a replacement phone that you re-sync with your PC (or Mac) and you have everything you had before. Why on earth should the company be dealing with replacing people’s batteries when the vendor can do that directly better and faster?

Kim Hendrikse says: January 16th, 2008 1:46pm

You can setup encrypted tunnels with the vpn. However, unfortunately Apple have chose to drop the data link to the phone company if no tcp connections are being made. udp packets won’t keep it up. And because all of the tcp connections are encapsulated in udp you know it is Apple software and not the phone company that is dropping the link (The phone company don’t see the tcp connections that keep the link up).

Unfortunately, this means I cannot setup mail collection via a vpn :-(

Ghost says: January 16th, 2008 1:47pm

I can recall when win95 came out and was a lemon, it crashed constantly and was pretty much useless poor support etc. Now the iPhone has just come out give it time to fit into its place and have developers write software for it. I have a windows smart phone what a chunk a junk it is. It has so many problems its incredible, its supports push email im told although i havn’t seen it from my phone company yet. Im guessing here but did the microsoft based phones have everything work for them on release?? I highly doubt it.

Razorfish says: January 16th, 2008 1:59pm

Pathetic article and pathetic responses. Kendall Geiner seems to be the only rational poster.

If the iphone doesn’t have the features you need …don’t buy it. There are obviously a lot of people like myself that find the feature set fits in fine with their workstyle.

eric says: January 16th, 2008 2:02pm

Relax people, it’s just a gadget. Really jake, “… biggest disappointment of 2007… piece of shit”? C’mon. Your year must’ve been great if that’s your biggest disappointment. Why did you buy an iPhone if you hate it so much? Caveat emptor, dude.

Personally, I’m enjoying the hell out of my iPhone. My old cell blomed.

Boo Radley says: January 16th, 2008 2:13pm

This article is horrible…”When the battery kicks the bucket, so does the device…” Um…how long will the battery last? 2-3 years? Who keeps a cellphone or iPod that long? Honestly? I know I get a new cell every year. I’m brutal on cellphones, I expect a lot of them and they usually deliver, for a year.

I’ve never heard of a software program that could lock or wipe a device remotely…that’s just me, I’m sure they’re out there. But why do you care? You have to sync it to use it and what do you have on your phone? Top Secret N.A.S.A. information? Well, then you deserve to lose it.

This whole article just sounds like sour grapes to me.

Bob says: January 16th, 2008 2:14pm

Yo, Ghost, what the heck are you talking about? She’s talking about Blackberries — they don’t run Windows Mobile.

Geez, typical Apple fanboy. Someone says “Apple sux” and the knee-jerk reaction is “Windows sux more”.

Ryan Dagey says: January 16th, 2008 2:50pm

@Tom
I got the iphone on a business account, no idea where you got your information. You attempts at slandering the post is humorous considering you essentially agreed with her point that the iPhone is not ready for business use.

@Mac & @Ghost
What this post is saying is that iPhone is not ready for business development, so why is everyone here yelling for giving it more time? She even said many of the issues may be addressed soon, the whole point is NOW. Focus people.

@Ken & @Razorfish
There are many features that the iPhone is missing that a vast majority of business professionals would make use of, which again, to beat the dead horse into Hades, is the point of the article. Just because the few mentioned here don’t suit your own taste, there are plenty others. Take away your clipboard from Windows or Mac and see how well you function after a week–this being only one of the many features that should have been builtin from day one if Jobs was really going for the professional market. Just as you can say don’t buy it if it doesn’t suit my needs, don’t read the article if it doesn’t suit yours. Or we can all keep a fresh, sensible disposition and be honest about what is being discussed. The poster never said anything about the iPhone working properly to meet the needs outside the “corporate IT” market, so again, why argue if you agree?

I am using both the iPhone and my Treo 650 because both have significant advantages and disadvantages, and speaking from experience, when I want to play or get bored and need entertainment, I will turn to the iPhone. If I’m handling a business task over smartphone, I will turn the Treo, and there are countless reasons why each handles the job perfectly.

steve says: January 16th, 2008 3:25pm

Apple sux, they are just another Microsoft in cooler clothes, so people who perceive themselves as cool, just have to have one now, alpha, beta, secure, insecure, who cares we just wannabe…

His Shadow says: January 16th, 2008 3:38pm

Just another load of anti-Apple guano.

Here’s a clue, dorks-who-think-they-know-what-business-needs.

A device “suitable for business” will be declared suitable when it MEETS THE NEEDS OF A PARTICULAR BUSINESS. I will guarantee you for a FACT that when companies eye the iPhone for corporate use, which they ALREADY ARE, they will NOT be looking for the opinion of blinkered Apple bashers who are ignorant of technology and the application thereof.

That is all.

Jack says: January 16th, 2008 3:39pm

You forgot the complete absense of enterprise grade wireless encryption. Lacking WPA-EAP support, the iPhone cannot sign on to WiFi with personal credentials and crack-proof passwords. WPA-EAP is the standard and widely supported wireless authentication scheme. Devices from Windows XP and Mac OS X to Nokia phones work with it; the iPhone doesn’t.

I can’t see many network administrators setting up low security iPhone-only wireless APs with shared office-wide passwords. This is even a problem on university campuses where there are less stringent security requirements.

His Shadow says: January 16th, 2008 3:42pm

“”
Robert: If some company tried to force an iPhone on me, I’d probably quit.”"

Goodbye, Robert. Don’t let the future hit you on the ass on the way out.

Jesus Phone on a Popsicle Stick at InMuscatine says: January 16th, 2008 3:45pm

[...] Web Worker Daily : Why Corporate IT Shouldn’t Support Your iPhone [...]

-=v00d00=- says: January 16th, 2008 4:07pm

I think what the author intended to do is not bash Apple and the iPhone, but demonstrate the risks involved in using them in a corporate environment. Yes, the boss may love an iPhone, but if it fails to comply with the corporate defined security standards practices and policies then it should not be allowed for official business use. Simply put, a CEO/CIO/CFO may have critical and confidential information on an iPhone and it can be left completely unprotected in the event of the iPhone being lost or stolen. This is simply not acceptable in our current culture of identity theft and corporate espionage. Organizations have to have sound and reasonable policies in place to protect the business from unnecessary risk; people running around with company confidential emails and data on iPhones is clearly an unacceptable risk given the devices complete lack of features to secure such data.

BTW… Kendall, “Encryption” capabilities does not entail simply SSL and VPN, security 101. That is data in transit, not at rest. SSL isn’t going to protect your iPhones data when lost or stolen. Windows Mobile and BlackBerry both provide capabilities for AES 256 encryption of devices storage and storage cards which iPhone does not. Windows Mobile and BlackBerry both provide the ability to remotely “wipe” devices and/or force locking mechanisms such as PIN or password… not the iPhone. I know the iPhone is a great device, but you cannot simply leave your common sense at the front door because you love Apple and Steve Jobs.

Zimmie says: January 16th, 2008 4:16pm

Of course it doesn’t do those things. There are plenty of other problems for businesses using it. Then again, Apple never marketed it as a business phone. It is quite clearly marketed as an iPod. Do people buy iPods to do their work? No.

How is this news?

bill baker says: January 16th, 2008 4:46pm

As the Blackberry Enterprise Server admin for my agency, currently supporting about 160 Blackberry users and another 30 or so Windows Mobile 5 and Windows Mobile 6 users on a handful of “smart” phones, I am happy to weigh in on this. My iPhone, despite its few temporarily missing features, is the best mobile device I have used. And I’ve used and evaluated and otherwise been subjected to the torments of A LOT of mobile devices over the past couple of years. I agree that at this moment, the iPhone may be missing some features that would make it a dealbreaker for someone needing to pull the trigger on a purchase today, but I foresee a point just a month or two down the road where these deficiencies have been addressed and the iPhone becomes that much stronger at that point. It’s already a capable device, turning the development community loose on it is only going to drive that point home even moreso. I would say that while this verdict is sound logic at the present moment, business would be doing itself a disservice to rule the iPhone out as ever being an “enterprise-class” device. 60 days may make all the difference.

buford puser says: January 16th, 2008 5:56pm

Jake says: January 16th, 2008 1:16pm

BTW, my AT&T number was setup with a biz account and I setup my iphone without issue.

Ryan Dagey says: January 16th, 2008 2:50pm

@Tom
I got the iphone on a business account, no idea where you got your information.

Maybe AT&Ts website?: “iPhone service is available only to personal accounts.” (see http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/iphone-faqs.jsp)
Those of us who have actually bought & used an iPhone (as opposed to those who want to cloak their Apple-bashing in a false veneer of actual experience with the product) know that the only way to buy an iPhone with a business ATT account is to close it and open a personal account: I was outraged when I found out that I couldn’t use my new phone because I was a long-term business user. After hours on the phone with manager after manger telling me no iPhone service for business accounts, I closed the account & put my work cell number on a personal count.
While it is a pain to have to submit the bill to the accounting department every month, my iPhone has made me so much more productive my boss is now planning to buy one (having already ditched her Windoze laptop for a MacBook after drooling over mine!).

Brad says: January 16th, 2008 5:57pm

Exchange support is coming – it’s been hinted by Jobs and there was a job posting related to its development on Apple’s jobs page. It’s too big of a market for Apple to ignore. I use a Blackberry now, as we have a BES, but I’ll switch as soon as the enterprise is well supported by the iPhone. The killer app is the browser and document viewing. You can run standard web-based apps and read documents and reports painlessly on an iPhone – not so with any other phone (PAINLESSLY being the key word). Try and read a P&L on a Blackberry. About the keyboard – I used my friend’s iPhone for about 30 minutes and I could type a lot faster than on a Blackberry.

Tony says: January 16th, 2008 6:40pm

I know one thing that the iphone can’t do. Cut and paste. What the heck are they thinking leaving that out? Also, unlike every other PDA, you can only get the SDK if you sign up for an account with Apple. And unlike the other PDA’s there is no way to test your app without a iphone. The iphone as a piece of hardware is great. But the fetters placed on the OS for purely political (commercial) reasons are ridiculous and totally unacceptable.

Brian says: January 16th, 2008 11:09pm

The comments here about encryption are being misinterpreted. The article is talking about data encryption on the device itself.

Any time there might be sensitive data on the device, there are federal and state regulations requiring “reasonable and appropriate” measures be taken to protect consumer financial and personal information. If somebody emails you a tax form with a client’s social security number on the form, that attachment will be stored on the iPhone before it can be viewed (IMAP stores the attachment on the server, but because the attachment might be encoded, in a zip archive, etc. all mail programs save the final attachment to disk). That could be a violation of federal and state laws.

It’s trivial to steal hard drives/flash memory from a device and hook it up to another device, bypassing all the password protection on the device itself. Only if the underlying hard drive or flash memory are completely encrypted is the data safe. Many IT departments require mobile devices be completely locked down so that if the device gets stolen, no proprietary or sensitive information can get in the hands of the wrong person.

Brian says: January 16th, 2008 11:10pm

Oh, that’s also why many IT depts require a “remote wipe” functionality—so if the device does get stolen (or the employee is terminated), they can issue a command to the phone remotely to delete all data from it.

Ben Darlow says: January 17th, 2008 4:15am

So you’ve decided to regurgitate a one-month old article. Sorry; half of a one-month old article. I notice you’ve left out all the laughably absurd reasons like the lack of a physical keyboard though, so kudos for that. The fact is, ‘The Enterprise’ is an especially vague term which is used to describe large businesses. Some of the largest corporations in the world won’t have all of the requirements which the Forrester article states, and so a number of these reasons really ought to be prefixed with “If it applies to your business, …”

Still, I feel like counterpointing to those points you raised, since they are obviously ones you agree with or feel are relevant.

The iPhone doesn’t support push business email or over-the-air calendar sync natively

This is something that nobody would have considered a problem prior to the invasion of the Crackberry. Email is disruptive. It’s a sign of a massive ego if somebody would rather feel important by being interrupted at any time of day by an inbound email alert than get their job done. Wireless synchronisation of calendar updates would be nice if it integrated into the calendar directly, but as it stands Exchange sends calendar requests as emails, so you will see them in your inbox with all the pertinent information visible.

We offer practical tips and advice for anyone who uses the web for work,

I extracted this little gem from the about page of Web Worker Daily itself in order to expose the transparent ridiculousness of the following statement:

The iPhone doesn’t handle third-party applications well.

So, third-party applications. What is the most popular format of third-party application in business today, used both by hosted service companies and developed internally by business IT teams? The Web. Oh, and guess which platform the iPhone excels at, far more so than any other handheld communication device?

When the battery kicks the bucket, so does the device.

Unless of course you send it to Apple to have it replaced. Which you shouldn’t have to do for quite a long time. Yes, this replacement carries a cost but then so does replacing a removable battery in any other device. Really this story isn’t about the lifespan of the device being tied to the battery, but the fact it isn’t user-serviceable. This may or may not be an issue (many devices used in a corporate environment are not user-serviceable; why should this particular one need to be if you’re only going to replace it after two years?).

The iPhone can’t secure data on the device through encryption.

IT can’t lock or wipe a lost or stolen device remotely.

Both of these fall into the ‘If it applies to your business, …’ caveat I mentioned above. There will certainly be businesses for whom the loss of sensitive data could be highly damaging, but there are far many more for whom it is more likely to be an inconvenience (what sensitive data can you store on an iPhone? Email and calendar appointments? That’s really about all). Certainly once factored against the benefits of the iPhone, these issues may not be sufficiently important for them to be concerned.

Anyway; the biggest thing that annoys me about seeing this sort of spurious, FUD-filled report being reproduced is when the article author doesn’t question the assertions being made. Saying “X organisation says this, what do you reckon?” is not behaving like a professional journalist. It’s being a hack.

cimota|atomic » Blog Archive » Lazysphere occurs in the big leagues too says: January 17th, 2008 4:56am

[...] and “gigaom” in the same sentence but thanks to a lazy journo at webworkderdaily who recycles the “Why corporate IT doesn’t want the iPhone” complaint, I am forced [...]

Brian Emenaker says: January 17th, 2008 7:08am

The IPhone was never meant to be a business app. It’s a consumer toy, not a business. It has never been marketed at businesses, nor will it be.

522Ind says: January 17th, 2008 8:04am

Its the best phone I have ever had for use with my Biz… Yes self employed design type… but it is about time I have access to everything like you damn blackberry people do… the people complaining about it are PC people and there is nothing wrong with it but if you run your Biz off a mac then this is the phone to have…plain and simple.

Michael Prentice says: January 17th, 2008 9:54am

Thank you very much, Dian! You have helped remind me that I don’t want to ever work for such a fascist hive organization which requires all of its employees actions to be orchestrated second to second. If a company indulges in such mind control, perhaps the 15 minute email synchronization limitations of the iPhone are a beacon of hope for its employed victims. Articles such as this are fodder for the non-fiction epic, “Slavery in the 21st Century.”

Zimmie says: January 17th, 2008 10:04am

@Kim Hendrikse: Strictly speaking, Raccoon just expires the VPN Security Associations whenever the phone’s IP address changes. This happens a lot, since the EDGE network changes your IP fairly frequently and the phone shuts down its WiFi radio when you put it to sleep. By default, it will try to negotiate new SAs as soon as it can, but that isn’t always feasible.

I know for a fact that the VPN will stay up without any traffic going over it at all as long as you keep the phone awake and tied to one address. I’ve got it connecting to a VPN-1 firewall at home Before updating my phone to 1.1.3, I had it jailbroken and ran all kinds of network tests with the terminal. I didn’t find any traffic that was allowed over the VPN that didn’t get sent.

Zimmie says: January 17th, 2008 10:26am

@Tony: “Also, unlike every other PDA, you can only get the SDK if you sign up for an account with Apple. And unlike the other PDA’s there is no way to test your app without a iphone.”

You must work for Apple, since nobody else has access to the SDK yet, so nobody knows what it can and cannot do.

Either that or you’re just pulling these statements out of thin air. Maybe someplace a bit lower and a lot darker.

Ben Hanson says: January 17th, 2008 11:53pm

Apparently at least 4 million people were satisfied. But I’m sure none of those were business folks.

Ray says: January 20th, 2008 9:18pm

The train already left the station. Lot’s of execs are already using it. Some even paid for it as well as the service .

Open your eyes next time you travel.

The only issue I see is lack of encrypted files capability but it will soon come via the 3rd party guys.

My solution is even better. An iPod Touch and leave the phone in the briefcase.

Web Worker Daily » Archive AT&T Hawks iPhone to Business « says: January 21st, 2008 9:56am

[...] every month for their individual phone bills. But they don’t do anything to address the other drawbacks of iPhones for corporate use that we recently [...]

Dan Oblak - MacBigot.com says: January 21st, 2008 1:36pm

Shadow, more correctly, it’s “guano con queso”.

For those arguing either side, let me offer a moment of clarity. The iPhone is a concept car. What sets Apple apart from many other consumer electronics (and computer) manufacturers is that they often put a concept car into the showroom, and into the hands of the customer. There are some customers who are willing to be on the ‘bleeding edge’ even when it’s clear that there are tremendous shortcomings — for the sake of the little leaps and bounds in functionality that set devices with the Apple logo apart from the rest of the world.

Those tradeoffs are often glossed or whitewashed over, to be sure; but the chatter is so vibrant about what gains and losses are impactful that the whole industry gains by the squabbling that we, as consumers and pundits, make between when Apple capitalizes on a concept and when the rest of the world follows suit.

Anyone who is yelling ‘all evil!’ or ‘all flawless!’ are missing the point; but if you sift through the above comments you will see quite a strong representation of the ‘fits my personal needs, and am glad for it’ — at a strong enough percentage that Apple will likely continue doing what they’ve been doing for decades.

This month, it was the new MacBook Air. To read the comment boards and forums, you’d think that Steve Jobs was personally trying to screw with all of our heads — how DARE he come out with such an overpriced, under-featured, sexy device that few will find a perfect fit for their business lives? (I am, of course, one of those opinionated, angry customers who can’t figure out why Steve didn’t make it the way *I* wanted it…)

The commenter above who pointed out that the article might just be a lame attempt to get hits on an advertisement-laden web page. But then, it’s probably somebody’s job at Apple to monitor all of this and funnel it to their R&D department before version x.x hits the store shelves. Oh, and Sony, and RIM, and Microsoft, and HP, and Toshiba, and Nokia, and… well, you get the idea.

So keep the conversations going folks; but there really isn’t a decent reason among us to be mud-slinging and aiming very personal attacks. We’re all just users in a 1.0 world — which is exactly where many of us would like to be… and stay, for one reason or another.

Douggie says: February 3rd, 2008 11:36am

Interesting comments from both sides. Surely it is up to the user if they want to buy an iPhone even with it so called “enterprise” limits. I have had a Treo for 3 years and that sure has lots of limits (specifically speech quality)but it is great for corporate e-mail and some other apps.

The iPhone has solved both my Treo short comings as a phone and given me the ability to somewaht limit doing e-mail on weekends and at night. I use my Treo for e-mail and my iPhone for telephone calls during the week. On weekends, or on vacation I only carry my iPhone. If I only have my iPhone and need to access e-mail I can do that through web access to our corporate exchange (same as I could access my corporate e-mail over the web from any PC). How would I know I had an urgent e-mail? Someone would call me/send me an SMS that there was an urgent e-mail needing my attention! If it was not that urgent it can wait until I am at home or at the office.

Fortunately in Germany, T-Mobile offers a new service “MultiSim”. Two SIM cards with same number, which when called, both ring similtaneously. Therefore, I can have two devices (Treo and iPhone)connected (with full mobile functionality (voice and data) on one mobile phone account. Both devices pair seemlessly with my BMW, so it does not matter which phone I have with me.

If I am driving on a business trip with other folks in my car (as I often do), I can choose to answer calls via car’s sound system with bluetooth (no privacy) or semi-private (pasengers only hear my side of the conversation) by answering on my bluetooth headset paired with my iPhone. This ability to have semi private conversations while driving with passengers is important. So, for me this is the perfect solution – Teo 650 and iPhone).

Most folks in my organization carry two mobile devices anyway, and have been doing so for years. iPhone is just great new technology, functionality and speech quality. Now I don’t need to take my iPod on business trips as well.

I believe iPhones will become very prevelant in enterprises because execs like me want one anyway. Apple will solve the technical shortcomings and IT departments will be forced to support iPhones. Goodlink or someone else will make client for iPhone similar to the client on Treo to manager corpotae Exchange e-mail integration. How long did it take for Treo/Windows Mobile/Goodlink to get push exchange e-mail sorted out so it was widely useable in Enterprises. It was several years after Blackberry came out as an e-mail device only.

I suspect it will take Apple and their SP mates to get it sorted out! The SDK get released by Apple this month, I believe, and then there will be a torrent of new apps for the iPhone that will resolve many of the Apple doubters percieved shortcomings.

P.S.: A friend of mine is an executive at one of the leading global banks. Their policy is that telephony and corpotae e-mail can not be done on same device for security reasons. He has to have two devices (Blackberry and other mobile phone)! Bet this is not the only corporate that has similar policies fort execs at senior levels.