A few days after Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, spearheaded the iPhone introduction at MacWorld, enterprise computing analysts are calling the iPhone to make no significant impact in the enterprise.
It comes to no surprise for me after reading InternetNews.com’s article regarding analysts “clamor” to hold the iPhone from being used in the business sector. Avi Greengart, analyst for Current Analysis is quoted as saying:
"As beautiful as the iPhone design is, physical design isn't what handset vendors are lacking,.."
"...there will be some reevaluation of the usefulness [of the iPhone] in the market,..."
"[the iPhone] will have very little impact on the business community,..."
"A lot of the innovation we see on the iPhone we've seen first on the Treo,"
"[The iPhone introduction] makes the incredibly crowded smartphone market even more crowded, ..."
Greengart’s assessment of the iPhone introduction is probably based on long-time experience in observing the mobile and smartphone markets. He’s right, to a point, that current phone offerings does not necessarily lack design oomph, and that some of the features included in the iPhone were indeed seen first with the Treo or other earlier released mobile phone.
The thing is, Apple is not necessarily claiming to have first developed some of the technologies in iPhone. Nor was Apple claiming to be the first to use these technologies. What Apple did was improve — again, the word is improve — on the currently available technology and adapted it for their target market. I for one find the Multi-Touch screen to be an even better option than using minute keys on an otherwise pitifully arranged keypad, or even using the stylus commonly used by current PDA models and smartphone. To me, the overall design improvement that Apple introduced to the otherwise docile touchscreen is a welcome sight.
The Apple iPhone. http://www.apple.com/iphone.
Image courtesy of Internetnews.com.
Missing features, security, and other qualms
Some things pointed out by Greengart and other analysts interviewed by InternetNews.com were that the iPhone did not include 3G making it unable to download content directly from its iTunes site, mobile TV capabilities, and cannot import applications (perhaps he means applications from other mobile phones). Another issue that enterprise analysts are pointing out is that the iPhone does not include secure corporate email and corporate-level controls.
Certainly, to the technically uninitiated, these sound like valid issues.
What Avi Greengart and other enterprise analysts has yet to realize is that the iPhone is still largely an “infant” product joining an overgrown, haphazardly organized, and tumultous mobile market. Knowing about Apple, the iPhone is in my own opinion only halfway complete. The currently unveiled product is pretty much targeted at the bottom level mobile user base, the ones that use their phone for virtually anything and everything without hindrance, and with simplified usability in mind. All the user could care for is that it is slick, it is cool, usable, and it works. The iPhone was made to be as usable to the very novice as well as the most technically savvy user, treating the user to as much eye candy as the user can handle. Clearly, the iPhone was designed with much emphasis being put on how the users will use their phones.
Apple always want to make their products to be set as far apart from other products as possible. 3G is pretty much standard in mobile phones today and I’m sure Steve Jobs doesn’t want his new pet project to be “just like the rest”. He wants it to be “better at best”. Ditching 3G perhaps is one indication that the iPhone is not your run-off-the-mill phone. But that doesn’t mean that without 3G the iPhone is trash. iPhone leverages pretty much on WiFi and Bluetooth — two technologies that Apple also widely used and popularized, perhaps even pioneered and helped to be introduced to the mainstream market. Since the iPhone is still largely under evaluation from the FCC for authorization, that will certainly not stop Apple from having second-thoughts later and incorporate 3G support before the final retail product ships within the year. After all, this is still largely Apple’s call.
As for application import, analysts should have noticed that the iPhone is indeed a different phone in its own right. It is using a slightly modified Mac OS X, which is in fact a full operating system embedded on a small frame with 4Gb - 8Gb of memory. In essence, the iPhone is in fact a computer that works like a phone, instead of the other way around. For applications, it doesn’t need the applications that can be found on other phones. Why? It already has applications and widgets from OS X that are waiting to be exported to the iPhone. This again sets iPhone apart from other phones. The stroke of genius, the “killer app”. Applications that only iPhone has and none other.
And with regards to secure corporate email and corporate-level controls, this once again falls back to the fact that Mac OS X has multitude of corporate users and applications. These can then be harnessed for inclusion and support for iPhone without much modification to the code perhaps only downsizing the application a bit. Email can even be accessed through the secure corporate intranet using traditional TCP/IP protocols like HTTPS, wrap in VPN tunnels, IPSec, or what-have-you. Anything is possible. In earnest, the iPhone is leveraging internet functionality on the go.
Bottomline is, analysts want to tone down the hype that Apple’s iPhone has brought. But reality is, it is still relatively very very early to conclude that the iPhone will not be supported in the enterprise. If your infrastructure supports WiFi, the TCP/IP Stack, VPN, Bluetooth, or Mac OS X, chances are that you are already welcoming the arrival of Enterprise iPhone without even knowing that you already are.
Will we see the iPhone being used on the enterprise? Will the iPhone go head-to-head with RIM’s Blackberry or other enterprise mobile handheld? Could be. All we can do is sit back and watch as the events unfold.
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