AT&T to Target iPhone to Enterprise

narramissic writes "AT&T is reportedly preparing to market the iPhone to business users and is scurrying to ensure that its backend enterprise billing and support systems will accommodate the device when it ships. Analysts are baffled by the move. In addition to running an OS X-based operating system, which enterprises may be reluctant to adopt, the iPhone is also expected to have a number of shortcomings for business users, including not having a removable battery and not having buttons, which would make it difficult to dial while driving says Gartner's Ken Dulaney. Avi Greengart, principal analyst for mobile devices at Current Analysis, also thinks the iPhone won't be a good option for enterprise customers because enterprises won't be able to write applications for the phone."

Comments

What's that smell / noise ?

[The Media Mechanic]

That is the smell & noise of the CEOs at Research In Motion, Palm, and Pocket PC, collectively soiling their pants after hearing this news.

Re:I dont think businesses will care what it runs

[RobertM1968]

Also, it has already been discussed elsewhere that third parties will be able to write apps for the phone, though for some reason a lot of people keep pretending that isnt the case... why?

First 3rd-party app for iPhone appears on Apple's site

And other links elsewhere...

Also, even if major apps written for it require Apple's endorsement/approval to run, that isnt a bad thing (assuming the price to do so is reasonable). It will help ensure quality control.

BlackBerry / PocketPC / iPhone

[aurigus]

I recently purchased a pocketpc based phone device. I really toiled with waiting until the iPhone comes out and getting that, but I heard some pretty sadening news - that Apple/AT&T will only allow signed programs to be installed on the phone. Unless they make that a pretty simple process, which I can't imagine they will - this will severely limit access to developers and software other than Apple sanctioned devices.

This is the main downfall of the iPhone. I have no doubt it will be popular with home users as well as business users who use their devices solely for email/calling. It will be a status symbol. But unless they open their source and allow developers to really get into the nitty gritty, I don't see it becoming the "one device to rule them all".

Re:I dont think businesses will care what it runs

[MSG]

That link does not indicate that 3rd party apps will run in the iPhone. It only indicates that an application is available which will run at a resolution appropriate for the phone. As stated, if you read it, this may simply be an indication of optimism on the part of the developer. So far, all indications are that the iPhone will not allow 3rd party apps, which is by far the biggest reason that I have no interest in it.

Finally, all the steps are visible!

[argent]

1. Companies write apps that run on websites.
2. The iPhone can browse websites with a fully-functional web browser.
3. This is the absolutely most airtime-intensive way to write applications.
4. PROFIT!

(for AT&T anyway)

Re:Business will laugh at the iPhone; they already

[RobertM1968]

From Apple's site:

iPhone features a rich HTML email client and Safari -- the most advanced web browser ever on a portable device -- which automatically syncs bookmarks from your PC or Mac. Safari also includes built-in Google and Yahoo! search. iPhone is fully multi-tasking, so you can read a web page while downloading your email in the background over Wi-Fi or EDGE.

(1)First Gen phone?

(2)little room for third party apps? Please provide a link with the specs that indicate that... Being an OSX platform, with most of the needed support in the built-in libraries, apps should be very small anyway.

(3) inherent security problems based off #1 - which is clearly wrong - thus making this point of yours as ludicrous as the rest.

(4)No EDGE support? Cant get high speed anything? Apple clearly states EDGE support, and 802.11b&g.

(5)No Outlook? What about web based? That will work on this phone.

(5)No Vista support? Says who? You? I doubt they will drop the ball on that one - even though Vista market penetration is minimal so far, they'll make sure it works with Vista just because soon Vista market penetration (through pre-installs) will be significant.

(6)Poorly designed UI in your opinion - I personally think it is equal to the others available out there, especially since it has a multi-touch screen - which other phones dont yet have.

(7)Cant get at the battery... if the battery is as easy and cheap to change as on the iPods that you "cant get at the battery", this too is a moot point.

(8)Cant change the SIM... not confirmed... as like many other phones, I think this will be dependant on the network the phone is being sold for. Just like when I bought my Treo - I had to look for one that even had a SIM slot so it would work with T-Mobile.

(9)OK, it wont get a virus... for a while.... and that is bad why? And with Apple's track record of support, when that does happen (based off your statement), that will be an issue why? Apple will have a patch, and probably (in my opinion) far quicker than MS usually does.

And Bluetooth 2.0 which a number of current phones are just starting to support (or dont yet fully support).

.

So, all in all, every point of yours is wrong, and whoever modded you didnt bother to check any of them. Oh well, they way of /.

Next time, learn something about what you post instead of posting FUD with no idea of what you are talking about. Just a thought/suggestion.

Re:Wrong

[Albanach]

Oh come on - my Sony Ericsson T610 could dial in response to a voice command several years ago. My Nokia E61 has speech recognition. This isn't something Microsoft invented or even perfected. Decent mobile phones - i.e. those available to the rest of the world (excluding the United States) have had these features for several years.

Re:Web Apps

[Matt Perry]

"...because enterprises won't be able to write applications for the phone."

It's too bad that companies can't write apps that run on websites.

It's too bad that the iPhone won't be able to browse websites with a fully-functional web browser.

Oh. Wait.

Wow, you're right. Ever since all desktop applications were moved to the web I wondered when those mobile devices would catch up. Who would ever want to run a native application these days when they could use a web site? After all, everyone knows that accessing a web site over a wireless network is so much faster than accessing memory on the device itself. Of course this only works because there's nowhere in the world that people are ever without network access. In a plane, in a remote location, or even in a telco closet many meters underground in the bowels of of a building, everyone always has a strong signal and can access their web servers. Companies won't have to worry about leveraging their existing J2ME and C applications; they can just rewrite them as a web application. After all, if it's not broken we must fix it.

ATT better work with software vendors

[Peartree]

Like Blackberry and Good. We use Good at work. That would be sweet. Don't get me wrong, I love my Nokia E61, but an iPhone would be the cat's whiskers.

Re:Business will laugh at the iPhone; they already

[WhiteWolf666]

Talking about EDGE in terms of bandwidth understates how bad it is.

The low bandwidth is a very small part of the problem with GPRS/EDGE. The bigger problem is latency; with the connection loaded (i.e. approaching 10 KBps) you tend to see 2000+ ms roundtrip ping times. While driving (as a passenger), I would see 15000+ ms round trip pings.

Can you imagine how painful it is to do anything online with a 15 second ping time?

Even with the connection virtually idle, and with ideal single strength, you'll see ping times in the 800-1200 ms range. This compares very poorly to EVDO Rev 0's 100-200 ms, and far worse to EVDO Rev A's 60-180 ms pings. Sprint has EVDO Rev A in many markets(40% or so) *now*, and plans a nationwide rollout by the end of 2007.

Re:Wrong

[WhiteWolf666]

Not perfect, but pretty good. You've got to purchase "The Missing Sync", from Markspace. Once you get that, however, it automatically syncs your Safari Bookmarks, Address Book, iCal, iTunes, iPhoto and several other neat things.

Works over bluetooth, yadda yadda. The only downside is it's a 3rd party app, so you have to buy it ;(