For all of Apple’s huffing and puffing (wow I use that phrase a lot), there still seems to be some resistance to incorporating the iPhone 3G into corporate and enterprise environments. And it looks like iTunes may have something to do with it.
One IT manager, in an interview with the imaginatively named ComputerWorld, expressed concern with the prospect of being able to deploy iPhone 3G on a large scale. The main problem is that the iPhone needs to be activated using a PC or Mac with iTunes installed. Good luck doing that hundreds of times in an efficient manner; wireless, over-the-air activation is much preferred.
Then you’ve got the typical IT Guy mentality, as expressed by another IT gent, of not trusting Apple’s “controlling” nature. Open source, Linux everywhere, these are *my* stations not Apple’s or Microsoft’s, etc. If these guys are in charge of hundreds of PCs and/or Macs at a time, they feel they need to be in charge of what goes in and out from A to Z. With the iPhone 3G and its App Store, they necessarily need to cede some control.
So as attractive as push e-mail and Exchange support is, it may not be enough to convince Mr. IT.
To me, that’s the most interesting long-term development with the iPhone 3G. Consumer will snap it up, sure, but will businesses?
I work in an enterprise environment and we have enough problems with people clogging the devices with personal nonsense so I know we will never allow iPhones. BlackBerries for everyone, FTW. Provision the account on the BES and then set the phone up and bam!
My understanding is that the new iPhone has to be activated by AT&T. I am assuming I will be able to order through the premier site and it is ready to go as soon as I recieve it.
As an “IT guy” for a large corporation. Why would a company want to give anyone an Iphone when they already have a BB solution? The Iphone brings nothing new to the table, its more expensive, terrible typing solution, it’s not locked down, and everyone already knows how to use a BB.
The last thing any support organization wants is a split environment of any kind. You also have to keep in mind that most enterprises have already spend a few hundred thousand on a BES environments already.
One of the biggest downfalls of e-mail is how much sensitive data is transferred in them. If a BB gets lost I can remotely wipe the whole device. I can enforce a 5 minutes password protected lock policy to keep the company data safe. from being sued for several million dollars.
Losing corporate data is so expensive. I can’t wait for the first multi-million dollar suit against a company over a wide-open Iphone. The question I would have to ask them, was it worth it? Was it worth giving someone something cool, that gives them no business related advantage, when it just cost you millions.
Corporate environments are a whole different ball game. Well that’s my 2 cents.
HEY dummy! It can be wiped. Watch the presentation.
there’s no need to be a jerk just because he didn’t know it could be wiped. he makes a good case, otherwise, too
It’s a feature point of the Enterprise functionality of the iPhone…if he’s going to talk like he knows what he’s talking about, he should read the brief 7-8 bullet point marketing .gif that’s on every iPhone related website.
Otherwise, this phone is going to easily sit in the Windows Mobile space.
Just want to point out to you that there is no additional cost needed to deploy the iPhone to an Enterprise environment. Essentially, it’s a Windows Mobile phone with the Security Feature Pack (which means it can be remote wiped, password enforced, and even more than BES offers). It works with Exchange out of the box…unlike BES, Goodlink, etc.
Corporate environments certainly are a whole different ball game, and that’s why Apple has made sure that iPhone 2.0 software includes everything needed for that ball game.
The iPhone does have remote wipe and vpn connectivity now, but for corporate IT the real advantage of the iPhone over the Blackberry lies in the SDK and third party applications. The current Blackberry doesn’t really lend itself to game changing applications and RIM will have to play catch up to Apple in this regard. Sales is the first obvious use and I’m sure Salesforce will release an app soon, but the possibilities are only limited by the imagination.
No one knows the details on enterprise support. Obviously RIM has the advantage of an integrated solution and I believe that RIM will basically live forever in the corporate world as a result of its deep integration. But if Apple can figure out how to integrate into Exchange w/ a simple easy-to-manage interface than it’s more likely to hurt the Palm/Goodlink folks more than the RIM. I’ve already got users with BB’s screaming to get the iphone hooked up. The power of the mob will rule here at the end of the day and I predict iPhone will make significant inroads, but not at the expense of Blackberry.
Who gives a rats ass what corporate users want? The worst phone I ever had was a BB Curve. How many of the losers at Ford have BB? They deserve them.
Tiny little changes to tiny little keys by empty suits = innovation by Retards In Motion.
To Cody B,
Please quit with the “iPhone is a terrible typing solution” nonsense. That is such a cop-out. Having used both a BB and a Treo, in addition to my iPhone, I will say the typing is a bit easier with the physical keyboard. A bit. But typing on the iPhone is not difficult, and if you read the many reviews of iPhone users you will see this is not a problem for them. For me the difference is minor enough that I really prefer the other advantages a virtual keyboard brings.
So if you want to say BB is a better typing solution than iPhone, then fine, but don’t turn to the tired and uninformed argument that typing on an iPhone is “terrible”.
I think the real obstacle for Corporate IT will be the requirement for Itunes for the deployment of applications etc - unless a lot of the music/video/podcast functionality can be disabled I dont think Management in the organisation will be too happy with end users browsing Itunes when they should be doing work activity.
IT people not wanting to use iTunes.
Of course not this is where the MS server Luddites as they will be known try to keep out the tide.
iTunes it only represents the greatest media browser there is.
It is quickly becoming the teaching and education portal of choice. If it hasn’t already. What all those free podcasts that deliver training and information are free!. I bet the managers havn’t factored that into their costings. Staff developement for nix. Oh no lets not go there.
The IT and telecommunications industry is about to undergo the torch from advanced Apple technology. its nothing special. The printing and Graphic Arts industry has already had that. Yes sure there were proprietry systems that tried for awhile to ignore Apple, talk about it like it was a fad. Eventually they came to the realization that they had to shake hands with Apple or go out of buisness. Which is what happened to most because it was to late cause they listened to nay sayers and PC techos.
We are coming on the same now for you IT manager+s. This time you to will come to the realization that 200,000 programmers can’t be wrong. You see the power is in the software and I would buy a iPhone for the OS alone. Sure use your excuse to block iTunes as a reason to stone wall the iPhone. But lock yourselves and your poor hamstrung employees in the closet while you do it. No don’t do that get a iMac or at least rent one borrow a iPhone look at what Mark Terry of Moo Cow music has done in no time, and see what the 21st Century has already brought and imagine what could be and is.
Interesting use of Luddite from one preaching itunes as “the greatest media browser there is”. Somehow such a post hints at its author’s status as something other than an IT manager for more than a handful of users (if that many).
The “educational portal of choice” hasn’t and won’t get far in corporate environments no matter how many computers Mr. Jobs has donated since his (wise) decision in the early 80’s. Some of our remote loc’s are on campuses at which the users (of macs) won’t distribute certain material due to the insecure nature of said portal of choice.
Perhaps some research into why large scale IT managers aren’t enthused about installing itunes (ever use it on a pc? not terribly refined) would temper your sermon (somehow I doubt it). It’s clearly a conspiracy that corporations don’t like the idea that they must share every app and proprietary piece of info they want to push with Apple’s server system. That last instantly slashed the iphone from consideration for our own network. Will I buy one for personal use? YES- it’s a beaut. Am I disappointed in its corporate capabilities? Yes, but I have no illusions about its shiny new coat and meager corp. feature set making it any more appropriate at the moment. We certainly can hope for additional developments changing this, and I can’t see any logic behind Apple not continuing to further its deployment. The risk is, of course, that instead Apple will sit back on its haunches and argue that it’s perfect (edge, nano, etc).
The IT and comm industry has felt the “torch” for some years now and there is yet no blaze of righteous change, rather a 20+ year climb to a 5-6% market share.
Surely you are aware that every other Windows Mobile capable device out there has a vendor specific software store of some sort available to it?
While I’m certainly no Apple fanatic, iTunes sets the standard for media browsing as far as the interface goes…though its performance is certainly bad on a PC.
Regardless, if your network allows Microsoft Exchange with Direct Push and Cisco VPN and you’re a large scale IT manager (I’m a large scale IT consultant to those managers), you’d be a fool to look elsewhere.
(excuse the repost)
1) The new iPhone will be activated in-store now apparently, or companies can remotely install applications and a preferences from a standard setup, just like they can with Blackberries right now. At least that’s my understanding.
2) Companies can set-up their own “App Stores” just for their employees, and limit what is downloadable to the device.
3) They “demand” open source? Open Source? Is Blackberry or Nokia or Windows Mobile Open Source?
4) Apple just gave the IT sweat armpit stinkaroos Exchange support, remote wipe, Cisco secure VPN connections, OTA syncing, etc etc.. there is nothing… NOTHING … that Apple didn’t deliver with regard to demands made of it by enterprise.
CrunchGear: Retards in Motion. “Mr IT” is a dying breed, heading for an early death after spending his life drinking too much Jolt Cola and getting fat on pizza in the Eighties while trying to code in Fortran, Pascal, getting DOS to run Excel, and teaching his kid how to program in LOGO to control that funny little robot thing with a pen attached to it connected to an RS232 port. “Mr IT” is being superseded by Mr “Yes I can do that”, recently graduated from college, who grew up using a Mac, an iPod, and has an iPhone.
Hasta la vista Mr IT Man; you just got EOL’d. But don’t worry, you can take your IT hell with you into retirement by setting up a Vista-based home entertainment system that crashes, a Zune that won’t squirt, an XBox which will break every 3 months with the “red circle of death”, and a PC so ridden with viruses you’ll never get a free moment to get around to visiting the doctor for that check-up which would have revealed you’re at risk of a fatal coronary until its too late.
Best of all? When they do finally cart you off to the hospital, you’ll be seen by a doctor who will take X-Rays, and later examine on them on his iPhone.
Ahhh the sheer humiliation of it all. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
Tommo_UK:
First of all, wow. The post started off really solid and informative. The more I read the more apparent it became that either your meds were wearing off or your true fanboyism was really coming out. Ok enough name calling from me.
1) The organization I work for averages 56 new BB activations a week (what I’m told anyways) at my location alone. I’m guessing AT&T and apple will come up with something to handle that sort of volume from a single place. I’m sure they already have something planned for that.
2) I think the corporate app store is a great idea as long as we can lock out the apple app store. The more apps a user can install the more calls our help desk we will receive and the less work someone will get done.
3) Most enterprises (IMHO) don’t care about open source. They want something fully supported. If we roll out an app to a user that means it’s going to help them do their job. If the users can’t do their job effectively because of an app we need it taken care of ASAP. It needs to be fully supported. I’m also in a very fortunate position where if I need an app developed for a BB or WM device I only have to walk maybe 20 yards and ask for it.
4) In most large enterprises Exchange is the standard for mail. Whether or not it’s the best solution, I don’t care. It looks like apples solution is on par with everything else. But most places (IMHO again) don’t want to reinvent the wheel when they don’t have to. If you already have a bullet proof BES environment why switch. If you’re a new company maybe the Apple solution would work fine for you, but replacing or splitting an already existing environment sounds somewhat stupid. Switching costs money and you have already invested way too much into a BES already.
The rest of your post) The reason I quoted “IT Guy” is because that person really doesn’t exist in a large enterprise. I quoted it because I thought it was funny. From my experience a “yes I can do that” guy doesn’t last long. You have to do things with the company in mind not what users want. Want and need are two different things most the time.
FYI. I own a MAC, several windows boxes, and use Ubuntu on my personal machine. I chose a PS3, for many reasons (I like streaming TV shows to my HD TV for free using yellow dog Linux and I don’t like the idea of RROD). I graduated from college a few years ago and focused on interoperability between platforms. Just because you can integrating systems doesn’t mean it makes any sense.
The real reason that IT doesn’t like the iphone is because they are scared of losing their jobs. The iphone is an easy to use device that anyone can pick up, while the blackberries are difficult and require an IT staff. I’m a small business owner and currently use an iphone, and love it because I can use it w/o the need for support from an IT staff.
I was largely undereducated with the enterprise functionality of the iPhone. I still don’t think it will fly in an already existing BES environment. I will address that a little further in my response to Tommo_UK (unfortunately I will be acknowledging his post, even though the bottom half doesn’t deserve it).