Apple iPhone winning corporate fans despite flaws

A hit with consumers, the gadget is gaining ground as a business tool as well, and could one day rival the BlackBerry, analysts say.

The story "Apple iPhone winning corporate fans despite flaws" published December 7, 2007 at 10:30 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[Ron Stark]

GREAT FOR YOUR BIZ!

iPhone is great for biz and personal work. I tossed TWO Treo 650's!
Palm offers expert tortured customer service.
Leave iPhone alone! It works great, does everything and makes my
iLife just lovely.
When are people gonna realized Apple's OS IS the best?
keep improving iPhone, Steve. I run a biz on it too!

[hurleysurf101]

not impressed

It has nothing to do with their OS...it's the UI and the only thing that makes that technology really "ahead of its time" is that they use a black background color and put the system in a closed box white casing. Everything on it has been done before.

I was an Apple fan, tried and true until about the age of 12, and then realized that they're elitist silicon valley tools.

[OscarWeb]

Wow... 12?

You were an Apple fan, tried and true, until you reached the ripe old age of 12? That's a very long time. LOL.

[gaylesdaddy]

Useless for business

If you have normal sized fingers, typing on the screen is difficult because it isn't a normal touch screen.
A BIGGER drawback is that it's memos can't be placed in different file folders.

[McBlayde]

Interesting

A LOT of people must have less than "normal" size fingers or have
figured out how to deal, since the iPhone now represents 27% of
the US smartphone market.

Go figure...

http://tinyurl.com/2mp9qy

[technewsjunkie]

Impressive for Business

The apps and fixes for these current shortcomings are in the works.

This is only the 1.0 version! Extremely impressed by SAP's adoption. It bodes well for accelerated Apple technolgies in Businesses that were previously anti-Apple. IT can't hold back the end users that demand Apple's Ease-Of-Use prowess. Oh yeah, their FUN TOO! And "pretty".

[hurleysurf101]

NOT Impressive for Business

"Ease-Of-Use" until you need to replace the battery or do some quick troubleshooting...that means turning it over to company IT for about a week...

With Apple it has never been about the technology. They had Corporate mindshare in the 1980?s and early 1990?s and blew it. They kept their system proprietary so it never seamlessly integrated with other products, in particular, Microsoft's. The "only" way it will rival Blackberry is if it backs down from that position.

The second Apple failure was its refusal to be price competitive. Corporate IT managers finally had no choice but to bail on Apple because they couldn't justify the cost to the CEO. In midsize-large company's case, when you are buying 30,000+ PC's every two or three years, even a couple of hundred dollars of price difference adds up to big numbers. In the case of many of the world's largest companies they buy 100,000+. This same cost principle applies to iPhone, regardless of 1.0 or 16.0 another 20 years down the line - Apple has not shown that they are willing to make the necessary changes to be competitive in corporate domain.

And sure, business-people do like things that are "pretty" as much as the rest of the world, which seems to be what sold SAP. Though the company is a 3-decade old software giant, my guess is that since it was started by 5 ex-IBM guys, they never jumped onto the Apple bandwagon for IT purposes in the 80's and early 90's. I have no doubt that we will see history repeat itself.

And as for this comment in the article: "Analysts who follow the company speculate it may eventually offer a model with a keyboard, or use technology that mimics the sensation of pressing real keys by making the phone vibrate for a split-second when the screen is touched." ....

It's already been done: it's called the BlackBerry (among others), and doesn't cost your first born child.

[McBlayde]

It only makes sense

since Apple evidently now has 27% of the US Smart Phone market.
Not bad for something nobody likes.....?

http://tinyurl.com/2mp9qy

[dhavleak]

Security issues...

I think running iPhone SAP/CRM clients is not without its risks. Everything on the iPhone runs as root. That combined with a device intended to connect anywhere (including unsecured wifi hotspots) is a risky proposition IMHO.

[cbazza]

Overblown security issues...

"a device intended to connect anywhere (including unsecured wifi hotspots) is a risky proposition"... crossing a busy street is a risky proposition, this overblown security concern is just an attempt (an excuse) to control mobile development. It is one of the main reasons while mobile software is virtually unavailable given the current number of mobile devices out there.

The worst thing Apple could do to the iPhone would be to include all of security crap that is available in JavaME that basically prevents developers from doing anything unless "allowed" by wireless carriers. Google's Android has the right philosophy in mind and I hope Apple follows it when it releases the iPhone SDK in February.

[AdamMoore]

Amazing

I actually come to C|NET now to search 'Apple' or 'Microsoft' just to read the feedback. I noticed that anything said to down the iPhone someone is there to correct it, or just give a random comment that serves no purposes (as most Apple cultists will do without worry).

Is this the same iPhone that doesn't support SMS? Congratulations, on using technology that's been out since at least Palm OS4, but add shiny plastic and glass and the Apple logo and it's the second coming. Next Apple is going to brand the sun, and people are going to jump into it. At least it'll make the world a quieter place.