Apple Mojo - The iPhone is a business phone

The iPhone is a business phone

New technologies find their way into enterprises in many different ways. Sometimes it's a well placed ad in an inflight magazine. If you've ever worked in an IT department that's had to fast-track some spur-of-the-moment project on a CIO's whim because of some magazine article or ad you're not alone. I've suffered that fate more than once.

Another way is that end-users (they're the folks that make support hard work!) show up in the office one day demanding that the IT department introduce Product X because they have it at home and it's a later release of what they're using in the office.

My favourite item in this space is software. "The new PC I bought last week has a newer version of Application A and it's far better than what we use."

This is how the iPhone will penetrate the psyche of corporate IT departments. People will start buying their own iPhones and expect to have access to the company email server and a bunch of other stuff. For some companies this will be easy as they're email is already accessible over the web. As long as it's OK with Safari then all will be well. The same goes with applications.

However, the lack of a development environment for the iPhone means that it's unlikely that there'll be a decent VPN solution (unless that's a surprise Apple plans on springing in a few days). That, and the lockdown that prevents bespoke, non-browser applications from being created means that corproate IT mobs will be going to the mattresses with some of their users.

For what it's worth, it's imperative that Apple address this deficiency. While it's fine to be a consumer electronics business Apple's now entering the phone business - it's not like MP3 players. People use their mobile phones everywhere - not just while they're walking down the street or sitting in a train. They use them at home, work, partying - everywhere. Apple needs to understand that in order to catch the hearts and minds of their entire marketplace (and therefore their hip-pockets) they need to make the iPhone useful at work.