[OnlineEditor]

The head of Forrester Research is predicting that the iPhone could soon steal the BlackBerry's business crown.

iPhone to wave "goodbye to BlackBerry"

[Amnesia10]

"If you're the typical CEO, you are carrying a Blackberry. But not for long," claims George F Colony on his blog. "Once the iPhone is able, in a corporate setting, to replicate all aspects of Outlook with high security, the iPhone floodgates will open and you will have a new device."

What ever happens Microsoft will benefit. If businesses adopt Macs and the iPhone then they will still need Office.

[TimoGunt]

I can't see businesses adopting macs, For a start you can get standard business machines for £300 which is a hell of a lot cheaper than a mac.Also having to change the Microsoft infrastructure. A complete nightmare. IT administrators are lazy. Lots are still running Windows 2000. I just don't see it happening. Not in this country anyway. America have embraced the Mac more though

[bioreit]

IT administrators are lazy. Lots are still running Windows 2000.

All Mac advocates are idiots who prefer style and expensive fripperies to actual usability.

/puts Sweeping Statement Broom™ away

I think if actual, genuine, signficant benefits could be made by switching from Windows to Mac (or Linux, or anything else, for that matter), then I reckon many IT departments would be happy to recommend doing so.

But with the cost of changing all servers, all workstations, all accessories, all licensing agreements, all support contracts, all training (IT and regular staff), much of the software (especially corporate security stuff) and everything else, the savings would have to be pretty phenomenal and pretty damn immediate for any decent-sized company to think it's worth switching.

Anything more than two years and the systems would be out of date and quite a portion of those costs would be repeated in the next refresh, making the numbers even more complex.

I can see small-to-mid sized businesses making the change to things like the iPhone instead of Blackberrys, but I can't imagine larger corporations like banks doing it large-scale for one very simple reason:

The husband of one of my sisters is a director at a bank and he often uses his Blackberry to text people during video conferences, under the desk*. Can't touch type with a touch-screen!

* Like in September 2001, when he was conferencing with guys in Germany. He told his team to drop in as many "5-1" references as possible, to the point where they even co-ordinated sentences so one would end saying "five" and the next would immediately jump in with "one... more thing to add..."

[Lacrobat]

I can't see businesses adopting macs, For a start you can get standard business machines for £300 which is a hell of a lot cheaper than a mac. Also having to change the Microsoft infrastructure. A complete nightmare. IT administrators are lazy.

If it weren't for your second point, Linux might seem a more attractive proposition than OSX. It's free after all, and can run very well on a £300 machine.

All the retraining and infrastructure changes however make the whole thing look somewhat unattractive.

[Amnesia10]

I can't see businesses adopting macs, For a start you can get standard business machines for £300 which is a hell of a lot cheaper than a mac.Also having to change the Microsoft infrastructure. A complete nightmare. IT administrators are lazy. Lots are still running Windows 2000. I just don't see it happening. Not in this country anyway. America have embraced the Mac more though

I think that that there are two problems with the uptake of the iPhone as a business tool. First and biggest is the necessity to have iTunes installed to enable syncing. If that was not necessary then it would be more readily taken up.

[Perfectblue97]

Looking at this from inside the industry, this should be a one horse race. The only reason to choose an iPhone is if your CEO is some image crazed gadget head who's been wooed by a flashy presentation.

The iPhone doesn't even come close to being ready for business, or even suitable for business. It's a gimicy toy. Oh, it's perfectly fine for personal use. I've used them myself and found them a great tool. But they don't come close to being suitable for business.

For starters, they are insecure. You can break into them using freely availably jailbreaking tools that allow even an amateur to break into them in minutes using a wizard interface that requires no IT knowledge. I have no confidence that Apple will fix this any time soon. At least not to the level that the Blackberry already has.

Next, I use a BES server that gives me significant control over the Blackberry handsets while they are out in the field. I can even have them remotely wiped if they don't check in often enough. Apple doesn't give you half as much control.

Apple itself also has too many back doors into the iPhone. I can't issue devices that are going to transmit or store confidential information knowing that Apple has so much access. I also can't issue my own iPhone apps knowing that Apple could wipe them at any time if they found them objectionable. Remember Amazon's Kindle bungle - the one where they wiped content off of people's devices - I can't risk something like that happening, even by accident.

iPhones have far too many features that I'd have to disable or cripple for business use. Features which I'd still have to pay for.

Maybe if Apple released an iPhone without the media playing capabilities, and only a tiny SSD inside rather than a multi GB disc, and charged considerably less for it, then I'd consider it more business appropriate. I have enough trouble with iTunes as it is, I don't want it on people's phones, too.

Being able to repair in the field would also be a must. I can equip people with spare Blackberry batteries, but I'd have to send an iPhone back to base for repairs and issue a new one. This can mean important people without working phones for longer.

Lastly, it's too easy to play with an iPhone. The web browser is great. I love it, I'd spend hours on it. Which is a big big problem for business. I don't want people browsing the internet when they should be doing other things. It's far too easy to waste time on an iPhone. The screen on a Blackberry is suitably sized that it allows you to browse the internet for important information, yet it doesn't encourage you to spend too long looking at trivial stuff. Having a screen that people need to squint at to read is a great productivity tool. It discourages them from spending too much time on the internet.

[TimoGunt]

All Mac advocates are idiots who prefer style and expensive fripperies to actual usability.

/puts Sweeping Statement Broom™ away

Heh you're right. I don't mean all IT administrators and I'm sure there are a lot out there constantly keeping up with technology. I do however know of companies that run Windows 2000 and NT. Now there are genuine reasons to upgrade too because of security and technology but their mindset is that 'if it's not broke, don't fix it'. Now if you can't get these people to even upgrade to working off of XP and Server 2003/2008 imagine the struggle to get them to go for Macs. It's inconceivable.

I think there are two problems with the iPhone(I have one by the way so I'm not biased). iTunes which Amnesia mentioned having to be installed on a work computer. I know for a fact my company would not allow it but also I wouldn't want iTunes on my work computer.
The other is the fact that business men don't want to walk around with the same phones as 17 year old college students. It's not a business phone really. Officially there's no reason why it can't be with a few software tweaks but it's much more of a consumer product. Who knows when it comes to Apple though. They could surprise us

[emjga1]

I think that that there are two problems with the uptake of the iPhone as a business tool. First and biggest is the necessity to have iTunes installed to enable syncing. If that was not necessary then it would be more readily taken up.

You are spot on with this.
We rulled out IPhone (been a lazy IT person) due to iTunes

If we could have Synced with out this or blocked it from downloading other Apps then we might have gone for the iPhone to replace our Blackberry's

[ansnansnanna]

For starters, they are insecure. You can break into them using freely availably jailbreaking tools that allow even an amateur to break into them in minutes using a wizard interface that requires no IT knowledge. I have no confidence that Apple will fix this any time soon. At least not to the level that the Blackberry already has.

[qpw3141]

Samsung to wave "goodbye to iPhone".

[kewal786]

hello friends i am kewal and i am newly joined this forum.

[sky33]

Many people do not use the most of the iphone functionality, but they still want it. Because it can bring satisfaction, especially in social status.

[qpw3141]

[quote="sky33"]Many people do not use the most of the iphone functionality, but they still want it. Because it can bring satisfaction, especially in social status.[/quote]

Yes, we know that there are a bunch of sad tools who buy iphones/pads/pods for status reasons.

[justanotherrandom]

[quote="qpw3141"]Yes, we know that there are a bunch of sad tools who buy iphones/pads/pods for status reasons.[/quote]

Hey qpw3141! That's not very nice! lol
Anyway, haven't seen you around spankingtube in a while - how you been?