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Corporate IT Hanging Up on Apple's iPhone
WSJdpatton writes "iPhones can be used for email, but many businesses don't plan to sync them with internal systems used to power Blackberries and Microsoft mobile devices. Employees eager to use the cool new gadget, however, may pressure IT departments to support iPhones even if it means incurring more costs and changing policies. The WSJ reports: 'Incompatible technology has become an increasing problem for businesses as hand-held email and phone devices are evolving into minicomputers that can do such things as download music, take pictures and surf the Web. In the past, businesses have been unwilling to support certain devices, like those with cameras, for instance, because of concerns employees could use them to document company secrets. But these tensions would be magnified if the iPhone is as popular as Apple is hoping and some analysts expect.'"
"Businesses probably shouldn't rely on proprietary communications technology, because people will bitch and moan when they discover that it is, in fact, proprietary"
Film at 11.
I think people will buy the iPhone because of its beauty, and not functionality. There are a number of phones that come standard with the features loaded in the iPhone.
Companies who've locked themselves in to a proprietary email system can't change when a new (and potentially better) product is available.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Corporations can use whatever they like. In the end, very few people need - nor want - to have constant access to their job. The market for iPhone is much bigger.
if so, why don't we seen businesses demanding open standards used when they make the buying decisions ? is this uninformed people being in charge or what ?
incompatibilities are biting businesses for awfully long time, but we still have
Rich
Almost there.
In capitalist USA user forums are the marketing department. I'm going back to 'died by spam' usenet I'm sure there will be less spam on average by now.
while I do question its usefulness as a real business tool compared to a blackberry, I think the security risk question is overly hyped. I think having web access so I can use a personal webmail account to send whatever I want out to anyone I want unfiltered by IT or corporate security[different from network security] is a bigger risk to my employers trade secrets.
I also think that there really needs to be an open standard for interaction with the servers these devices need to talk to so that one server can talk to anybodies pda/phone. I know I don't want to implement different software for each different model of cell phone.
thats right, I rarely use capitals. deal with it. but don't mistake my laziness for stupidity
WTF. Corporate IT is fucking weird. The iPhone is POP3/IMAP and SMTP
What's so "nonstandard" about that?!
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Seriously, an IT department should support a set list of systems, not everything a user brings to work and wants to use - thats how costs spiral out of control (as noted in the FA) and also how IT eventually gets blamed for the cost overruns et al.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-11
Adapt or die. Soon the number of non-microsoft stuff exceeds the number you can ignore or brush off.
I don't work well whit Lotus Notes (Aarrggg the horror)
The corporate "standard" is Microsoft Enterprise Windows Email Exchange Protocol Vista Ultimate Edition 2007, not one of those pesky "open" standards that anyone can implement. Only communists use POP and IMAP, you know.
The server system I mean - I seem to recall them being available in the UK in 1999-2000 but reliant on GPRS. It's only been in the last couple of years that they have been embraced by corporate IT, and largely because of a 'me too' culture that passes like a virus around meetings and conferences. One place I worked earlier this year rolled them out with full server support to their executives over about a month after a VP was converted.
The iPhone isn't designed as a corporate product - yet. It *should* provide the same open standards that iCal and iSync work with, which will mean synchronisation with the Mac desktop and indeed Google Calendar among other things, so if there is the demand, and Steve can see outside the living room for a minute, there would be a nice little market for an Xserve based synchronisation server. The problem is that neither it nor the iPhone would still play nice with Exchange without some third party software - it exists but it's presently not 'Mac' enough. But give the iPhone time. At the moment it's Insanely Great but without a huge amount of market penetration and the option of true integration the corporate world won't even look at it for a couple of years.
Oh, sorry *waves iPhone* oooo, shiny.
to the 29th June is plastered with daily iPhone stories :)
What's so "nonstandard" about that?!
a nge/2007/evaluate/clients.mspx
Maybe not MS standard as in compatible with Exchange.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exch
Look at the chart in the link. Even some versions of Outlook are incompatable with some versions of Exchange.
Only Outlook 2002/XP and 2003 are compatible with all the versions of exchange listed. Everything else is incompatible with at least one version.
So what versions is the phone compatible with?
The truth shall set you free!
Any ITIL aware shop will happily throw the iPhone into the mix with Windows Mobile and Palm support, along with Nokia, Motorola, etc. The premise is not what technology or platforms you standardise upon, but rather how you support the myriad of technologies and platforms already inside the organisation. I'd bet the business case to support iPhone in organisations will become much clearer once IT staff or Executives start purchasing them anyway.
And the Calendar is what? The Contacts/addressbook is what? The Todo list is what format? The notebook is what format?
This is actually a big issue. It's physically easier for me to sync my two phones manually, that is, to manually write down and type in contact details between my addressbook, my business and personal phones.
Thankfully to the developers, there is OpenSync: http://www.opensync.org/ . Pain in the arse to set up at the moment but very much going in the right direction.
Deleted
A solution already exists for this. It's existed for years - it certainly predates Exchange's current popularity.
It's called IMAP. Over SSL (or a VPN tunnel for outside access). You can even set up Exchange to support IMAP, and bingo - basic email access works for more or less everyone. Of course, you lose the integrated calendars stuff, but that's a sacrifice you may have to make.
Only communists use POP and IMAP, you know.
BS. Everyone knows communists run on Macs.
...
if this is the future of IT, stop the fucking room, i want off.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
I don't see how a long-standing industry fact, i.e. that corporate IT departments are unable/unwilling to support an infinite range of hardware options until there is reason enough to do so - gets turned into an inflammatory article dissing the iphone. The fact is, not too long ago IT departments weren't interested in dealing with Blackberries either. When the workers realized how useful they were the IT departments were convinced the new challenge was worth it, and life went on.
I don't see the iphone becoming a corporate toy immediately, but if enough corporate-types adopt the iphone (presumably because it's useful or makes their lives easier) then IT will come around.
Thanks Zonk for the predictably inflammatory headline. Might I suggest something like, "Corporate IT departments would rather commit suicide than support non-Windows hardware." You're already only one step away.
If this were Usenet, I'd killfile the lot of you.
An IT department makes the choice of what standards they support. By supporting open standards there should be no problem getting almost all devices connected. However it seems increasingly popular to support just some proprietary solutions. This can cause a lot of problems in the long run, especially if wanting to change the platform.
that nobody really needs, but looks cool and you're the envy of your friends and co-workers if you have one. Most people bitch that they "people won't leave me alone" or "can't get any work done" in reference to email. How is this going to help? Oh yeah, it looks cool and ...
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
I hear they'll be releasing a version more targeted at Corporate IT - called the itPhone.
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
I think many people are missing the primary challenge that the iPhone (or any other handheld device) faces for enterprises: VPN software is far from standardized. Beyond that Apple hasn't really gone out of their way to make the phone Enterprise friendly. For instance, enterprises like installing all sorts of crap on your device to ensure that it malfunctions rather than give away a single phone number in their personel directory. Paradoxically, open platforms allow for such shenanigans, while this thing doesn't.
Sure, WinMo devices et al can do some form of live mail and calendar etc, but the Blackberries do it predictably, reliably and generally make a lot of sense from a business perspective.
incompatibilities are biting businesses for awfully long time, but we still have
That's a myth. There are certainly dedicated Microsoft vassals who stick to the all Microsoft strategy quite deliberately for cost reasons and it probably works for them although the lock in also has some severe downsides. There is however, also quite a large group of businesses who deliberately distance them selves from Microsoft or whom Microsoft never succeeded in assimilating for the very practical reason that in the 'server' systems (using the term loosely here) market, unlike the Desktop computer market, the world is not Microsoft. In the Telco industry for example multiple platforms are forced upon you even if your inner self is crying out for a harmonic landscape of Microsoft logos and interoperability and open standards are a major issue. Ericsson typically demands SUN systems, their newest switches use Windows for one of their sub-systems, various newer vendors and startups typically use Linux for the same purposes (and not necessarily for ideological reasons, there are no license fees and they have complete access to even the kernel source which makes it easy and most important of all **cheap** to integrate their hardware) and a few vendors actually specify HPUX and AIX. On top of that there are also vendors who use Windows, typically Win2003 server but I have seen equipment running anything down to Windows 95. Going all Microsoft with the accompanying cross-platform problems and the near complete inability to switch vendors just isn't an option for many businesses. Microsoft products are still used but most of the movement towards FOSS is on the server end of the spectrum, office suites and their
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
Until now, there hasn't been the need. When IT equipment was bulky and or expensive, firms could just make sure all their infrastructure used the same supplier. Then as handhelds started to arise, everything had to be compatible with Windows, since everyone wanted to be able to sync against Outlook.
Now though... if enough people buy iPhones, and then say "so why doesn't our email work with the iPhone?" that's going to put a lot of pressure on firms. Offhand I can't think of anything with popularity of Apple's iLife range where the vendor has been brave enough to rely on open standards.
So, from the management point of view, I think this is a New Thing.
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
The Holy Grail of business? You can get your e-mail from that. Is that nice enough for business?
Pop or IMAP, or that Yahoo push business. Not RIM. Can sync with Exchange server.
I think there is a big danger here of trying to leverage open standards into this sort of situation, by force. As an IT department who has to manage this sort of thing, if you enforce "open standard" communication, you end up locking out all the devices that don't use it. Which may be fine for zealots, but you try explaining to the boss that he can't use his Blackberry / iPhone / whatever, that he has to use some pissy featureless block of crap, simply because it interoperates in a way you like. I'm sure he wouldn't be too keen to have to tell another company they have to send stuff in ODF as well, because they can't read .doc.
After all, "open standard" is just the standard one body has picked, as opposed to any other standard. The purpose of an IT support team is to provide support to the whole organisation - to help them get the best out of their equipment and resources. So go with the industry leader, the product that gives the users the features they want. Interoperability is nice, but *not* as important.
iPhone works with POP and IMAP. They found a couple of IT drones who hadn't bothered to find out what was involved in supporting the iPhone, and just assumed that they'd have to jump through the same hoops that RIM requires.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
John Gruber has an article about this, for those interested.
I wouldn't buy this phone. The technology is old. There's no 3G networks supported by it. I agree that the user-interface might LOOK nice ... HOWEVER ... I once had a universal remote control (Philips pronto) that was pure touch screen. In the beginning I thought it was great as you can program it the way you want it to be.
BUT I ended up hating it because you have to look at the device at all times when you use it as you don't know where the buttons are. The iphone IMHO will be painfull for daily use.
Define locked in?
You can often find an upgrade path from what you have to something else. Furthermore, since when does email access stop at the. So I want to migrate to a better system, great, so I don't have to deploy new email clients but I've got to port my mail stores, get all the archiving and AV scanning, anti spam installed. Assuming we're just talking about email and not groupware. Blackberrys are rarely used in the corporate environment for email only.
And Microsoft Office is NOT proprietary?
Complaining that it is proprietary and not support is just a weak excuse - it is just plain easier not to support a new device.
I am not getting an iPhone, and I am not a fan either but this article is just plain stupid. So much that it sounds like propaganda.
The iPhone has a REAL email client, you can even view your attachments correctly. It does not need you fancy special infrastructure for email to mobile devices. That is why there is no support for RIM Blackberry proprietary systems. No the iPhone uses IMAP, POP, SMTP and other things typical email clients use. You may call them proprietary or closed but honestly this is dumb.
Now has the iPhone with no use for business users... Companies have spent so much effort on Web applications even for internal use. Sure they have save on deployment cost and support cost for individual machines but this could be what make teh hassle of building web applications instead of desktop applications all worthwhile.
Since the iPhone includes a real browser, that means you could use all these internal business applications on an iPhone... without any kind of special development. They just need to be available externaly, and that is where it could get better. I don't know if the iPhone supports VPN, I guess it could since it is included in desktop versions of OSX. They just need to find a good way to interact with VPN from a phone's reality (frequent disconnection, or "almost" disconnections from the network, reduced battery usage etc. ). Maybe it is already in there...
But that would make the iPhone able to use YOUR own existing web business applications without having to buy anything from any special vendor.
Easy solution to this: add black tape to the camera portion of the iPhone. There no company secrets will be stolen via camera.
What kind of IT rule is this? Most phones have a sync cable or bluetooth to hook into a PC, can store data on flash card. A camera would be the LEAST of my worries.
So pretty soon phones will need to be rack-mounted like a PDP-10?
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Like it or not, the corporate IT e-mail "standards" are Lotus Notes/Domino and Microsoft Exchange now.
Blackberries and Windows Mobile Smartphones already work with those standards, but the iPhone does not.
I'd imagine those features will be on the long list of improvements for iPhone 2.0, though, along with a lower price and more storage space.
The reason I don't want to support an iPhone is that there no method for me to brick the device like I can with a Blackberry. Or at least no method that Apple has promoted. So when an Executive is out having a little too much to drink and leaves their mobile device in the cab, it can be locked away from prying eyes.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
product company. We could give two shits about what you think."
And Apple really DOESN'T. So this entire post is a non-starter.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
"Apple's iPhone is not approved technology"
And it never will be. Why? It has a camera, and this is a bank.
The iPhone, like the iPod, isn't marketed toward corporate customers.
Let's face it, in most companies it'll work like this:
If the CEO gets an iPhone, the IT suddenly has a high priority action item to make sure it works with the corporate messaging system.
If any VP gets an iPhone, the IT will have a low priority action item to get it working.
If anyone else gets an iPhone, they'll be told it violates the corporate IT policy and they need to use something else for corporate messaging.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Does the iPod support remote-kill functionality if it's lost? If not, that will keep it out of a lot of places I deal with.
All it takes is a patch and the phones will work with this or other standard.
All it takes is for sales to drop and the iPhone will dance to a different iTune. Same goes for any other company's model, if they are serious about business.
Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
At this point the laser like focus of anti iPhone diatribes doesn't sound like, it IS professional disinformation. What will /. put up next? The national coalition of Lawn Service Guys proclaim that iPhone is bad for business and bad for your lawn?
/. step up your game - try to at least appear like you're not shills.
C'mon
This is 100% exactly the same thing as what anti Blackberry people said about the Blackberry. Guess what - it has massive presence in corporate I/T. Woops. I swear I never in my life heard so many people specifically come out AGAINST a mere product before it's even available.
if this is the future of IT, stop the fucking room, i want off.
So do a lot of people. That's why Ubuntu, Apache, Red Hat, and Apple are doing well and Vista is doing poorly.
The truth shall set you free!
In corporate IT, every project should have justification (i.e. cost reduction, revenue enhancement, legal compliance, etc.). Comparing Exchange/Blackberry to POP3/iPhone for a new organization is one thing and it could be argued that some organizations would choose the one that fits their needs best. However, what is the benefit for SWITCHING to POP3/iPhone for an organization that is already using Exchange? With Exchange/Blackberry they have centralized email/contacts/calendars that are accessible from any number of devices without needing to synchronize anything. It could be argued that the iPhone is cooler/sleeker but how could that possibly justify the cost of changing along with the lost calendar functionality? It's like saying they should dump those ugly econo vans for a fleet of Ferrari's because they're more fun to drive.
The iPhone is not targetted at corporate IT. It's targetted at the individual who wants to look cool. Just like the Ferrari (no insult to the iPhone - the Ferrari is a nice car).
What is there about the iphone that should warrant Corp IT to support it? Is it compatible with existing services? Does it add new capabilities to field personnel? Or is merely a new toy?
If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
What is with 3 people who want FM radios in iPods? 1965 called, it wants you back.
Seriously, who uses FM radios once you have an IPOD/Mp3 player or even XM?
Does the iPhone not support POP or IMAP? Email standards have been around for years, why can't the businesses support them?
The iPhone must already must be a success. Otherwise, why would their be so much effort to distribute so much FUD?
Why would I not be able to check my corporate email with an iPhone? According to Apple it will have the Safari web browser built-in, and I could browse the web. I could even check my email using the corporate outlook website (which BTW is one of the only ways to check mail away from the office). And I don't have to ask permission on what device or web browser to use to access the website.
People must be envious of Apple users lately. I can't go a day without reading an article here on slashdot that was spawned out of obvious envy for the platform. I can't blame them since nothing generate page hits like a good old-fashion holy war. Oh and don't get me started on how many "I'm not buying an iPhone" comments that are being posted (even more as I type this comment!).
So you're not buying an iPhone... I don't care. I'm not running out to buy one either, but I'm sure there are people who are and more power to them. Now if I was really into IPods, I might consider purchasing an IPOD with 8GB it would put me back $250, and to buy a new unlocked phone with bluetooth is $250.. or I can get a iPhone for the same cost (of course I would have a stupid 2 year contract). Sure it's a flimsy argument, but who am I to tell other people how to spend their money. Personally, I think the iPhone is a fine product in its own right, and probably worth every penny. At least more likely than any of the $999 and higher mobile PC spawned from Sony or (gasp) Microsoft's Origami project.
Besides I wasted similar amounts of time and money on a Zaurus, Palm Pilot, PSP, and other gadgets that I thought would be fun to have around. I don't remember anyone being as vocal about not buying any of them. Hell, the Zaurus was recommended solely on the premise that it ran Linux.
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
"Incompatible technology has become an increasing problem for businesses"
Translation: Too many IT shops bought Exchange hook, line and sinker, and are now finding that it was not, after all, a panacea for their email woes. It may, in fact, wind up causing more problems than it solves, over the long haul. Which should come as no surprise to anyone, ever.
There is a class of software called "device management" that functions like the provisioning software you'll find on most corporate PCs. It does things like
Automatic deployment (or revocation) of software and configuration settings.
Encryption of sensitive data.
Remote kill switch if it is lost or stolen, and "self-destruct" if there are repeated failed access attempts.
The iPhone, due to its lack of support for third-party software, has none of this.
Ok, am I the first to remember this? Palm was for *years* derided by IT departments everywhere. Same for Blackberry, and the MS phones. "They'll never work with our systems", "They're not secure enough", etc. But what happened as soon as the corner office got one? It was no longer "keep it out", it was "make it work and keep your job". All this is hot air and IT's resistance to change until their job is on the line. You'll see a lot of quite accptance then...
One team at my company is looking at iphones for distribution of training videos to on-site and field technicians because over an ipod based solution they also have the google maps, better web browsing and actual phone all in the one device. Yes many other pda phones can easily handle podcast aggregation, but Apple does a darn good job and the device should have excellent video playback.
The big holdup for a lot of people will be a lack of direct exchange integration. I'm not a blackbery fan at all, but I do like Windows Mobile and exchange push. I would not be surprised at all to see apple licensing from MS and implementing OTA exchange sync in the future.
-Xen
There's a reason why products like RIM's Blackberry are popular with corporate. They WORK. It just works. Little support need, no messy configuration by the end user, it just works. Lose a device? The administrator can wipe the device remotely. On-device encryption. Integration with corporate email and corporate IM software. Ability to communicate device-to-device via IM without relying on the corporate backend systems. And actual push email. Not sms-triggered, or any other goofy stuff I've seen over the years.
To support corporate, Apple needs to provide a proper SDK so the companies that make multi-platform mobile syncing software can write to it. There's no other way to deal with the calender and contact list syncing and other features.
But, once again, Jobs' Stalinist view of technology (it'll set you free, but only in the way he defines freedom) isn't going to bend at all. Remember, it's not about working well with others, folks, it's about what YOU want, and the universe should reshape itself to you, and anyone who tells you differently is just trying to keep you down (geez, maybe a Scientology comparison would work as well). Unless you work at Apple, and then it's about what Steve wants, of course.
Sapere aude!
Employees eager to use the cool new gadget, however, may pressure IT departments to support iPhones even if it means incurring more costs and changing policies. In most organizations, if you use non-standard equipment, you're on your own, regardless of how high up the food chain you are.
Who is general failure, and why is he reading my hard drive?
Historically, the Blackberry Enterprise Server (or a Desktop Redirector) was needed because BlackBerries ran on the Mobitex network. So, you'd basically use BES to mount your exchange server, securely route email through a proprietary protocol to BB's central servers, which would then distribute it to the wireless network.
I'm not 100% on how the current GPRS/EDGE or CDMA systems work, but I believe it's the same centralized model, which is why BlackBerry has network-wide outages from time to time.
It seems that this model has been hard to replicate because programming plug-ins for Exchange and other corporate email systems isn't exactly child's play. It's not THAT hard, but many of these mobile device companies don't know how to build teams to create software like this (otherwise, why haven't they?)
Apple and Yahoo! , on the other hand, are adopting the draft IETF Push-IMAP standard, since GPRS/EDGE devices basically can ride on an IP network. It eliminates the middle-man of BES.
The roadblocks I can see here are:
- it's not a ratified standard yet, which means single-source implementations will be the only guarantor of interop
- supporting Exchange, Lotus, etc. with a plug-in that doesn't kill their native IMAP functionality
- ensuring that the Push-IMAP exchange is secure
This latter point is important -- many corporate email systems are *not* available over the Internet, they're only on VPN. I gather they only added BlackBerries when they were demonstrated that it would be a secure transmission to the central RIM servers & device itself.
But, in the end, it's quite likely they'll make this happen by late 2008.
-Stu
There is little doubt that this is a marketing pr document. Whatever PR firm who wrote this document is hoping that the news people start to talk about it. Did anyone mention that the IPhone is not even released yet? I mean, how can businesses "hang up" on it when they dont even know anything about it? They cant and so they wouldnt....
:-)
What this article clearly shows is that the existing players in the cell phone market are very scared... Damn scared of what the potential impact on their market space could me... Competition is such a beautiful thing...
pop? imap? authentication? i'm guessing iphone supports all this.
haven't heard if vpn is doable, but not impossible.
after that, the cam is a problem, so ban it like every other cam phone.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
What enterprise networks admin in their right mind would let users bring in personal equipment to store company data on? My employer wouldn't (for example) let me copy company information onto my personal laptop, why should they let me copy company email onto my personal phone?
If the iPhone is as big as a PDP-11, I think I'll stick with my Treo.
e ssor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmed_Data_Proc
There's no failure quite as dissatisfying as a complete and total solution to the wrong problem.
Actually, when our site managers go out to a construction job, they can use their camera phones to take pictures of lots of things and instantly send them back to the office for review. And then, if a contract or change order comes across, they can log into our web based management system and type in things using their keyboard. All of this without having to drive 45min to another jobsite just so they can "be there" to manage things.
And you're absolutely right, the iPhone isn't out yet but then again, I don't decide one day to just go out and buy a new server and "just plug it in." Seeing as there's only 9 days left before launch, I'd say that anyone who hasn't looked in-depth into the iPhone yet has already missed the boat on being able to integrate it into their support structure by launch date.
Oh, and bosses never make unreasonable demands to the IT department. Nor do they ever demand to have something work regardless of cost or logic.
"Don't feel bad for me child; I'm the monster that hides under your bed."
The latest version of Blackberry Enterprise Server has the ability to disable the memory card and/or camera on the new blackberry models (i.e. 8100 pearl). This could be adopted similarly for whatever iPhone software is used.
I swear I never in my life heard so many people specifically come out AGAINST a mere product before it's even available.
I have.
The PS3.
Pretty much anything that isn't from Microsoft gets bashed heavily before it arrives.
Pretty much everything that is from Microsoft gets bashed before *and* after it arrives.
Corporate disinformation is standard practice. I stopped believing anything at all, and I'm much happier for it.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
Yes, it's much easier to not do your job than it is to do it.
If it's not part of your job as an IT professional to learn new platforms, leave. They clearly have no idea what's going on.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
I busted out laughing during last year's keynote when Steve mentioned Yahoo! Mail for push.. WTF?
You've described exactly why push email is nice. So why shouldn't the significant portion of the population that has no need for push email at work, be able to enjoy the benefits of push for personal email instead?
That's TF. Apple wants to bring some features that have really only been offered to business users, to everyone else... at some later point then they can back that support into exchange - if they need to.
With BlackBerry Enterprise Server a corporation has the ability to lock that stuff down in the same way as they can lock down a user's computer. I can disable the BlackBerry's camera, bluetooth, usb.. I can push software down to all devices (SUPER convenient during that idiotic change to DST), and I can remove software from all devices. This combined with flawless syncing with our messaging system via push technology is why BlackBerry wins in the corporate environment.
Have you ever thought about the parallels between this and DRM? Why is it more compelling for a USER to have the experience you just described above. What will happen is that execs will buy an iPhone, and start loading stuff on it anyway rather than the locked down eight ways from Sunday Blackberry. So you have to think about how to deal with a world of open devices where people load stuff you would prefer they not, rather than make a 10x10 section of a very large dam leak-proof. Users, like nature, Will Find a Way.
The iPhone looks sweet as hell, but -in the end- it is just out of place in a serious corporation.
That may be, but ready or not - here it comes! Are *you* ready?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The PDA's can be trouble. At one of my client every VP and high manager has their personal little gadget filled PDA, in some sort of pissing contest.
Each time I go at their office I need to coordinate with the IT guy. He keeps leaving me alone (without any system access) since he spend half his time answering request for PDA requests. Mostly synch of mail, calendar, and access to phone, phone messages, and all that. "Joe can display a picture of the caller, please make mine do it to. No matter the PDA is of another brand. Just read the manual and get back to me".
The IT guy (and me) cannot believe they pay him so much time just to help them out with their little personal gadget. It would cost a lot less to hire an office aid to keep track of all messages and events for them.
Future of IT? It's the present reality and has been the reality for some time now. If you wanted off, you should have bailed years ago.
And usually mediocre (but that is another topic).
It is smaller than SMEs in revenues in every single continent and it is dwarfed by the consumer market from the iPhone point of view. So why should Apple care?
The corporate world is full of bozos who thinks that the CrackBerry offers some productivity gains.
These guys are crazy.
On the other hand my Google apps will run fine on the iPhone... Take that "productive" CrackBerry (a glorified agenda).
It's not just e-mail (which should be an easy fix as many have pointed out). The iPhone will come with a web browser. People want to access the intranet with their phone, only to discover that nothing works because their corporate IT drones developed everything with active-x or .net, locking everyone into IE 6 or later and a Windows box.
Allowing IMAP-S on an existing MS Exchange server requires about five minutes in the administration interface. It does not necessitate eliminating Outlook's MAPI, or whatever other proprietary protocols you choose to run.
Of course, it does require a security model based on something other than, "Our server is secure, because hackers could never compromise Outlook!"
The US free market: two halves of a government-granted duopoly are free to set the market price.
the world must be deeply afraid of the iPhone for this amazing amount of FUD to be generated.
hey, YOU ALL KNOW YOU WANT IT. Admit it. it's ok.
and unlike Ubuntu on Dell, Apple might even allow you to have one.
That's the version already in Tiger, and the iPhone ships with a version of 10.5, so... I can't see them leaving this feature out, since it's already implemented (and I'm guessing, improved) in the desktop version, and it's a back-end connection thing, not a user facing UI thing. This of course points up the folly of poo pooing products that aren't yet shipping, based only on what you think you've seen as a feature set. We have all of 9 days to wait now, can we just wait please?
MSRP - Tax, Title & Licence Extra Your Milage May Vary
I think Apple has pretty effectively proven by now that it can do just fine without having to shuffle and buckdance for "corporate IT." When has "corporate IT" ever led the way in anything? The average corporate IT department is staffed by some of the most play-it-safe, unimaginative, "we do what we're told" yes-men you'll find anywhere. It might be HEADED by one or two clueful people, and the general staff may be OTHERWISE intelligent, but creative thinkers and proactive problem-solvers they are not. (In general.)
The PHBs run the show, and if the PHBs are won over by the shininess and sexiness of Apple's new toy, the company's IT department WILL be made to fall in line. If that means turning on IMAP on the Exchange server they sank their money into in their usual lemming-like orgy of uncreativity a few years ago, then that's what will be done. If the iPhone is anything approaching a hit, third-party software vendors will quickly come in and offer products to make sure the iPhone bends to all manner of paranoid corporate needs. And the PHBs will say "buy that third-party software so the iPhone works with our system." Or maybe they'll even say "chuck the server solution we have and go with something that works better with the iPhone."
Apple's very much on a "fuck you very much" roll these days when it comes to Microsoft, so you'll not see any Exchange interoperability any time soon. And finally, Apple's in a place where they can afford to be so cocky. (I prefer to say it's not cockiness, but rather, a demonstrated commitment to choosing open-source, open-standard solutions over a competitor's proprietary solution.) Let's say the iPhone DOESN'T get anywhere in corporate IT. Big deal; the iPod -- and let's be honest, the Macintosh too -- prove that Apple will thrive without the blessing of corporate IT departments.
In short, Apple just doesn't NEED corporate IT. And I am INCREDIBLY sick and tired of hearing the usual Wall Street and "me-too" tech industry press JACKASSES continue to make the same retarded braying sounds, every time Apple does -- well, anything, about how the "lack of acceptance by corporate IT" will DOOM Apple to failure. Right. So they should be going out of business any day now, no?
Fact is, Apple is one of those companies that sets the agenda FAR more often than it follows it. The real short-sightedness here is among all those self-proclaimed "experts" who seem to believe that the status quo is the way it'll always be. Yeah. That's why we're all still using WANG terminals and VMS. Or the GEM desktop. Or desktop computers made by IBM. Hell, I bet they'd have you believe Microsoft will still be ruling the desktop in 15 years. (Not saying Apple will, but Microsoft? Nah.) Dipshits.
Daring Fireball says most of the above well, also.
FYI, not buying the iPhone, despite being somewhat of an Apple fanboy and Mac consultant by trade. I DO have the ability to see the iPhone's shortcomings, believe it or not . . .
--- Why yes, I am the webmaster of Microsuck.com
I agree, except that it only works between Exchange and Windows Mobile devices, using Microsoft's push technology.
What about
- sendmail or postfix
- Lotus or Novell Groupwise
- Symbian devices
etc....
Technically, Push-IMAP is proprietary as well, but at least it has a published (and expired) Internet Draft.
-Stu
That's all there is to say, really.
Sure iPhone supports POP and Imap, but that is not enough. Shared calendars and contact lists as well as public folders are important to mobile users.
Evolution supports exchange server by using data published from OWA. It works rather nicely and is the best way to connect a Linux machine to Exchange server. Apple could have used this method to get minimum exchange support.
Yup they could have done it, but Steve and company decided not to. We are a half Mac half PC shop and we will not be replacing our Motorola Qs with iPhones since they don't completely support Exchange server.
It is a design decision that will cost Apple corporate and personal sales. I'm certain more than one executive, that has to have the newest shiny toy, will be ultra pissed when he finds out his great new iPhone will not sync his calendar, contacts, or public folders over the air.
-ted
I work in the IT Department of a very large US based company.
I find the chances of them allowing access to our systems to be very slim.
And frankly the opinions of our employees don't really play much of a part in any kind of decision making process when it comes to IT or security.
Even when it has come down to specific blackberry models we would would without hestiation tell people that we had no intention of supporting their device, we never would, and no amount of pleading would change that.
Of course saying that, I think that many of the iphone features are fantastic and potentially very useful in a business enviroment.
A minicomputer is technically more powerful than a microcomputer ( i.e. a PC ).
I type on a screen already and let me tell you it sucks. Why? No tactile feedback. What device am I using? Samsung U1 Origami. They have a blackberry type keyboard screen. And it works fine, but it is nowhere near perfect. The problem with a screen keyboard is that you can't miss the target. With keys your fingers are guided to the right key because you adjust in a split second if your finger is to the side of the key. Because there are no keys on a screen your finger can't adjust and you constantly hit the wrong key. Additionally having an onscren keyboard sucks because it takes real estate away.
This is why I will not buy an iPhone. BTW notice how the next generation of Samsung U1 (Ultra) has keyboards to the side of the screen... Hint, hint...
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
I'm betting the Iphone will turn into a huge dud.
With the Ipod Apple tapped what virtually a unseen market. Creative labs was there, but no one else was doing mp3 players, and to my knowledge they were the first "large" mp3 player, or at least viable large mp3 player. They created easy to use software and easy to use sync, and over time minor improvements like the clickwheel. They tapped the unseen market, the same way the Wii and DS tapped unseen markets.
The Iphone is competing in an overly competitive market against three forces. On one side you have the Phones, Motorola, and Nokia as well as other phone suppliers are pretty locked in there. Then on the other you have blackberry, and side kicks and other office assistants. Finally and most importantly you have Ipods and Ipod Videos.
Apple's goal is to replace all of these with a cute efficient iPhone. Even worse is they seem to also be going after lap tops a bit as well. It doesn't contain the keyboard of a blackberry, the storage of the normal ipods, or the deals of the Motorola or Nokia phones.
Why does the iPod work? Because people think "I need an mp3 player, that one looks the best" however what the iPhone is expecting is someone to say "I need a new blackberry and an iPod, and a phone, oh look there's the iPhone". Personally I think we'll find the iPhone struggling for the first couple years at least. Essentially instead of filling a niche we're getting "yet another competitor". But that would explain why we are getting flooded with information about the iphone. It seems apple is asking "Why fill a niche, when you can just create one instead?"
Remember back when Blackberry was new? How did those get into your company? Yup, the IPhone will follow that well-traveled path.
Good grief.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
Roads are typically paved. Walls and broken limbs are plastered.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
This is like asking if big corporate IT is going to support the new iMac--it's missing the point.
The iPhone is like the iMac with iLife. It is intended to bring capabilities that in the past were reserved for professionals, to the general public. 10 years ago, only pros and real geeks did digital audio management, digital non-linear video editing, DVD production. Today millions of everyday folks can do it.
You can go back even further to things like print layout--formerly the domain of a whole class of high skilled professionals. Today anyone can produce a nice-looking newsletter with custom fonts, inline graphics and photos, pagination, etc. The original Mac helped push that development.
Apple doesn't want a slice of the corporate pie. They want to redefine how everyday people use their phone--just like they redefined how people used their computers with the iMac and iLife and iTunes. That is why they are emphasizing consumer products like Google Maps, Yahoo mail, iPod audio, movies, TV shows, etc. The whole point is to empower the individual as a private person, not an extension of a corporation. This is exactly the same as their desktop and laptop strategies.
Apple hopes that years from now, we remember when "smart phones" were primarily business productivity tools.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
In the past, businesses have been unwilling to support certain devices, like those with cameras, for instance, because of concerns employees could use them to document company secrets.
Oh please, give me a break. Removable media such as USB devices pose a much greater threat to corporate IP than camera phones, at least in IT environments. If you don't trust the people working for you then the game is already over.
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
As the person responsible for global IT operations my company I can sincerely say I am platform agnostic. We embrace open source, Macs, Windows and all technologies alike applying them where they belong according to their strenghts, weaknesses and industry standards. In terms of upgrades, everything goes through the same due dilligence including TCO vs ROI calcs. Now I'm no iPhone expert but I currently fail to see a compelling reason for a business to adopt this product on its own merit. At the consumer level I think it's awesome and no surprise since after all it's Apple.
Back to businesses, though, since that's the focus. We have hundreds of handhelds and currently do not have IMAP enabled on front-end mail servers. Why would I want to take on everything related to introducing a new public-facing protocol for a device that provides IMHO no noteworthy advantages over Blackberries and Windows Mobile Devices and I'm unable to purchase and distribute to my staff through my regular business channels? Additional resource consumption, new threat vectors and other factors have to be outweighed by the advantages the solution provides and I don't see the iPhone doing that. If we use POP3 for it people loose the active synchronizations their current handhelds provide and inevitably perceive it as a downgrade.
I would appreciate some insight as to why this product should be adopted by a business as short of the top-notch hardware Mac always puts out I'm just not seeing the value. Don't talk to me about re-ordering voicemails and other features businesses simply don't care about. Hopefully this is not another case of me missing the global teleport over to Job's reality suspension field since I heard it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy...
P.S. Any organization that allows a "revolution" to be driven by employees probably won't last long especially when it's regarding legalities, technologies or any other specialized topic the majority of staff have insufficient knowledge on to make informed decisions. They hired us because we do have the knowledge and expertise and will do what's in the best interest of the organization. So, don't try to buy your own drugs and then ask your doctor to make it work for you because the commercial described your symptoms...
That's just my POV... no more, no less.
I was afraid that Apple was not going to get 99% of the cell phone market to not buy one.
We've already informed our users that we will not be supporting the iPhone. If they buy one they will be on their own. We're currently a Microsoft shop and recently fell victim to one of our support staff informing the general user population that we support MACs. After the statement was released, those of us in the IT core team found ourselves sandbagged by the head of support because we didn't even have a single MAC in the department that we could troubleshoot MAC issues with.
When the announcement of the iPhone was made with a firm release date, we immediately informed the support head that not only do we currently have issues supporting Blackberrys (like the new Curve) but we have no way of offering support for the iPhone and that we should make sure that the user population would be made aware that they would be on their own should any decide to buy one.
Personally, I like the gadget's potential, but the reality is that you can't support user issues if you don't have the knowledge or equipment to troubleshoot those issues.
To avoid corruption, one must remain dishonest.
Whoa. I think I can help here...I speak a little PHB:
"My day job involves creating processes that allow our enterprise to securely build, deploy and manage configurations to mobile devices like mobile phones and blackberry."
"I manage the people who run the email servers for my company. I have a degree in business; I am skilled at synergizing my big-picture ideas on a going-forward basis."
"What I need to do...is to create a repeatable, secure and reliable method of taking control of a physical device, securing it (so data and credentials on that device are safe and my enterprise can authenticate both the device and the user later) and configuring it."
"We need secure logins, but we don't trust our users."
"I haven't even begun to discuss the difficulties involved in effectively securing the authentication protocols used for your end users services - what are we proposing? Cached user names and passwords? X.509 certificates and mutual authentication? OTP's? If so how do you configure both ends so that you preclude man in the middle attacks and credential stealing?"
"We did not cover secure IMAP in my MIS classes."
"what happens when a user loses a device or its stolen? That happens on average twice a day for us worldwide BTW. We revoke the device's access and then provision the user with a new one. To do that we need to be able to auth the devices too. We could get away with not doing that but would end up having to cancel user accounts to remain secure."
"Encrypted, password-based authentication is too simple to possibly guarantee my job."
Being broke, hungry and a college student, I kind of got dragged kicking and screaming into IT.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Sounds like you haven't used MacOS X. Under the 'apple menu' there is a menu item called "Software Update". It goes of to Apple and downloads OS updates. There is no "apple menu' on the iPhone but it is running to MacOS X so likely similar mechanism is there on some menu can't see on the top level.
That's not a back door.
iPhone is a revolutionary new mobile phone that allows you to make a call by simply pointing your finger at a name or number in your address book, a favorites list, or a call log http://www.mp4-converter.net/iphone-converter/
1980s are coming back!
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Whenever somebody goes on holiday, the first half day back is spent waiting for Outlook to open the Inbox.
I have no idea what the heck it is doing since I am not a Windows expert, the only think I can say is that an old Netscape email client in Solaris does a better job at handling those messages. What I used to do was to open first with Netscape, remove the fluff and then allows Outlook to deal with the cleaned Inbox.
since then I have changed my email habits to ensure the Inbox does not grow beyond certain limits, but it still takes quite sometime to start and be usable.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Please point us to that certification information in which applications are certified.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I'm of the opinion that Apple doesn't care a lick about corporate IT at first, it's going after the mass consumer market -- where the only real convergence device like this has been the ill-fated sidekick. Or did everyone miss the "my photos" and "youtube" buttons on the iPhone, not to mention the who iPod thing?
Once Mr. CEO buys one of his own, just because they're so fashionable, IT will have to figure out IMAP support overnight, regardless of how they're posturing right now, and vendor lock-in (Blackberry push server) will be effectively broken.
Just because a billion companies put in very specific email servers just to handle a single vendor's brand of mobile doesn't mean it's a good idea.
--d
iPhone runs a version of opensource Darwin. I'm not sure what "closed nature" you are talking about, I was with you til that point. XCode and various SDKs are available, at least for Mac OSX. I think your post, and its high rating, illustrates the additional time-delay problem of cluelessness in many IT departments. You set forward all the issues and potential problems before actually doing any research of the device. "Analysis paralysis" sets in from the start. And then you mention how Exchange isn't "closed." OSX has had Exchange support since 2003. Non-issue. What gives??
Well then beggars can't be choosers I guess.
will we be able to take IT heads out to the woodshed and forget about them? will we be able to access ALL wireless nets just like the wired Internet? will we force all the wireless companies to share? will "all you can eat" wireless telephony join the "all you can eat" Internet? I think, for the record, the iPhone is a damned nice piece of engineering. It's all these stupid networks that suck, really hard.
So much for my english skills - thankies :)
Not only do you have not sense of humor, but you seem to have unlimited mod points with which to punish me for attempting to raise the level of discussion out of the fanboy sewer that you want it to wallow in. Why don't you just come out of the closet and make me a Foe, chicken?
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
Here's a message from my corporate CIO that just came across. I work for a Fortune 500 corporation with global operations. The name of my company has been deleted from this message.
Text follows:
---
Dear Colleagues:
Many of you may have seen the extensive promotions for the new Apple iPhone, which will be launched by AT&T this week. This notice is being sent to everyone in advance of the launch so that [the corporation's] employees can make informed buying decisions. The iPhone offers many consumer benefits, but it has been designed mainly for the consumer market and would not work within a corporate computing environment. Because the design of the iPhone is not compatible with our computing network, it cannot be supported.
---
Text ends.
I take issue with the following -- "it has been designed mainly for the consumer market and would not work within a corporate computing environment." Does anybody else think this is high-handed (and erroneous)?
Later, he goes on to say that "the design of the iPhone is not compatible with our computing network," which is more likely, but still...
Cheers,
Doc