AT&T to Target iPhone to Enterprise 315
narramissic writes "AT&T is reportedly preparing to market the iPhone to business users and is scurrying to ensure that its backend enterprise billing and support systems will accommodate the device when it ships. Analysts are baffled by the move. In addition to running an OS X-based operating system, which enterprises may be reluctant to adopt, the iPhone is also expected to have a number of shortcomings for business users, including not having a removable battery and not having buttons, which would make it difficult to dial while driving says Gartner's Ken Dulaney. Avi Greengart, principal analyst for mobile devices at Current Analysis, also thinks the iPhone won't be a good option for enterprise customers because enterprises won't be able to write applications for the phone."
The Enterprise (Score:5, Funny)
Wrong (Score:3, Insightful)
How did the RAZR succeed? By being a high priced toy to the wealthy at first. How did Blackberry succeed? By being a high priced email toy for business elites. The iPhone really combines both - a sleek design with email, web, and calendar built in. The downside is that it isn't compatible with Outlook.
But, for the low low price of $500, only the elitist of the elite will be able to afford it
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But I tend to agree, let the early adopters pay a premium, pay back the development costs, help Apple work out the bugs and design issues, and then lower the price for the masses.
Worked for Microsoft, except for the "bugs and design issues" part.
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Re:Wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
What a coup that they've managed to turn around and actually supplant the PalmOS on some Treos, though I suppose this says as much about Palm's ineptitude as it does MS's success.
And working in Apple's favor is a whole legion of early adopters that will buy anything with the little apple on it - similar to the people who bought those early CE machines.
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Sidekick vs Blackberry (Score:4, Interesting)
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I dunno about that... many executives I have met should be wearing clown suits. It would fit their intelligence and actions level quite appropriately... then again, I work for CompUSA (at least for a little while longer), so that may not hold true of the rest of the executives in the corporate world.
Besides (on a more serious note), if the phone does have the correct functionality and capabilities, then this is doable... with the correct marketing.
The toughest issue might be trying to market a "phone like
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For some reason, there seems to be a number of slashdotters that think $500 is a lot of money.
It still is to me, but, there are a TON of people out there where $1K-$3K is pocket change!!
There are a lot of wealthy people out there who would gladly dole out $500 to get a new 'toy'. You don't even have to be a doctor or lawyer type either...plenty of people out there making money...so please, don't kid yourself, $
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No matter how cool "You had me at scrolling" is, you can't tell iPhone to do something with your voice. You can in fact do with with a Windows Mobile 5.0 device.
Seamless integration with Exchange is THE killer app for WM5.0
I am one of Microsoft's top resellers of WM5.0 technology, so I know what I am talking about here. It's the punchline of my presentation for BlackBerry and iPhone questions.
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Bluetooth - simple. Earpiece bonded and VR on, I can find out the time, battery and signal strength, have it read messages to me - dial by name; redial, etc.
Go back under yon rock, rezeller...
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How is my Moto Q better than an iPhone?
1. EVDO versus EDGE. No contest. EVDO (or WCDMA, or any 3G mobile broadband technology) means (two way) streaming video, and a high-speed, interactive Web 2.0 experience, unlike crap-ass EDGE. No one will be willing to use OWA, or any other "rich" website, over EDGE. EDGE is horrible. Trust me, I relied on it for over a year.
2. Huge library of installable software.
3. Excellent, no-training-required voice control.
4. Goo
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Works over bluetooth, yadda yadda. The only downside is it's a 3rd party app, so you have to buy it
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Re:The Enterprise (Score:5, Insightful)
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It really *really* depends on what you mean by "enterprise". Are there going to be "enterprise" users who aren't satisfied with the iPhone and will continue to use Blackberry/Windows phones? Yes. Absolutely. Will there by users who have "enterprise" accounts with AT&T who will be scrambling to get their hands on an iPhone? Yes. Absolutely.
A fair number of the people who get iPhones will be business users who want to be able to get e-mail on-the-go, but otherwise wouldn't want a "smart phone". Pe
I dont think businesses will care what it runs (Score:5, Insightful)
I dont think businesses will care what it runs
I think businesses will be concerned with how it integrates with the things they need/do. Will it be able to open Office files? Will it be able to synchronize with Outlook? Does it make phone calls? Will it be able to synchronize contacts and such?
None of those should be beyond the capabilities of the phone... it is all just a matter of what actually is implemented (or implementable with minor work) when the phone is released.
Does it make phone calls? (Score:5, Funny)
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No, really sensible actually... I just thought that /. posters would be intelligent enough to understand the meaning. Yeah, it's a phone, it will make phone calls... but a few all-in-one, do everything phones make really poor phones because their physical design is more oriented towards text messaging or web browsing. The original Sidekicks (to me) were a pain in the butt to use as a phone (in comparison to say a Treo or many Win-SmartPhones). Apple's design blends the best of all of them (in my opinion). Y
Well, that's just it (Score:2)
I've played with many of them as I am a developer of software for them.
As a Mac user (recently switched, from linux) I'm actually interested in the iPhone.
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For the original Blackberry, the answer to all of those questions was "No".
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Re:I dont think businesses will care what it runs (Score:5, Informative)
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Actually, it does... next time read the whole thing before you post. Click the link to the whole article, scroll down an entire pageview and read this part...
"Scenario Poker showing up on Apple's Widget page and listing iPhone compatibility may not necessarily mean that Apple has blessed the application for the iPhone. It is possible this may just be a display of optimism on the part of Scenario Software. Apple has to date not shown any non-Apple applications/Widgets running on the iPhone.Thanks John!"
A
Jobs said it would run some third party apps (Score:3, Interesting)
However much of the need for third-party applications will be removed via the obvious step of the users ability to include Dashboard-like widgets created with Das
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Re:I dont think businesses will care what it runs (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, that last one was kinda sarcasm and kinda not... most businesses I have worked for want to know
-Can it receive and send text messages easily?
-Does it make phone calls (easily)? (Yep, it is a phone)
-Can it sync with our email system?
-Can it open the occasional document sent to it?
Some businesses want more collaborative features, but the fact is, they are rarely used in most corporate environments. To that end though, with a full featured web browser (as also discussed on /. before), the possibilities are endless there without too much work - and since many companies are web enabling their stuff, most will see no additional work to make their stuff work on an iPhone. The ones that will are those that use MS (or MS partner) Proprietary solutions like Siebel (which though it is quite powerful, outright sucks anyway).
All in all, I think the iPhone may be the next killer phone.
-Correct form factor (ie: smaller and more comfortable to carry than a Treo or most SmartPhones)
-High level of functionality from full web browser to extensibility via widgets and other apps
-Support from a company that is second to none (other than perhaps IBM that they generally rate roughly equal to)
-Stable, proven platform... no hard resets, soft resets
-Synchronizable with Macs and PCs
-Intuitive interface
-shiny!!! (no, not joking on this one... many tech decisions are based on the eye-candy factor even though they shouldnt be).
-Investment protection in having a phone built on a hardware and software platform that will allow tomorrows (and even the next day's) latest apps and widgets to run on it.
Just my 12 cents.
Re:Business will laugh at the iPhone; they already (Score:2, Interesting)
Which won't matter a whit for most businesses out there. "Shiny" will matter.
Full featured web browser.
Your logic is truly dizzying. First, saying that "its new, and thus will have inherent security problems" is a logical fallacy.
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""will it be fast enough.""
Picture something for me.
Picture the clouds opening up, and a booming voice from heaven:
"NO"
EDGE PDAs are disastrously bad. Anyone paying $500 for an EDGE pda with intent to use its internet functionality should get their head examined.
Re:Business will laugh at the iPhone; they already (Score:3, Informative)
From Apple's site:
iPhone features a rich HTML email client and Safari -- the most advanced web browser ever on a portable device -- which automatically syncs bookmarks from your PC or Mac. Safari also includes built-in Google and Yahoo! search. iPhone is fully multi-tasking, so you can read a web page while downloading your email in the background over Wi-Fi or EDGE.
(1)First Gen phone?
(2)little room for third party apps? Please provide a link with the specs that indicate that... Being an OSX platform, w
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The low bandwidth is a very small part of the problem with GPRS/EDGE. The bigger problem is latency; with the connection loaded (i.e. approaching 10 KBps) you tend to see 2000+ ms roundtrip ping times. While driving (as a passenger), I would see 15000+ ms round trip pings.
Can you imagine how painful it is to do anything online with a 15 second ping time?
Even with the connection virtually idle, and with ideal single strength, you'll see ping
Re:Business will laugh at the iPhone; they already (Score:2)
EDGE, GPRS, GSM Quad-band, and WiFi capable
So.. the speed thing seems to be a lost argument point.
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It's not a '1G' phone, it's a 2.5G phone, which means that it does in fact have GPRS and EDGE, just not HSDPA. And though it doesn't have Outlook, it does have push IMAP, which is what companies need, not specifically outlook or Blackberry email.
And we don't know jack shit about the battery, SIM, possible third-party apps, or voice recognition yet. So don't pretend you know.
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Dialing While Driving (Score:5, Funny)
That would be a "feature" not a "bug".
Please punch the first suit you hear complaining about that.
Can't dial "while driving".... (Score:5, Insightful)
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A little early? (Score:3, Insightful)
That said, I'm skeptical that it will make a good email platform without a real keyboard
Re:A little early? (Score:4, Interesting)
Most business executives I've seen using a PDA phone aren't real concerned about its capabilities as an input device. They can *call* people back if they have something important to communicate back to them. They simply want to remain in touch with what's going on. Their phone needs to be reliable and basically free of crashes/freezes (Cough, Treo, Cough!). It needs to have a relatively easy-to-read display and easy-to-navigate interface, so it's comfortable to read incoming emails on. Ability to view attachments is critical too. Too much data arrives as a PDF file, a Word or Excel document, or a JPG or TIFF image for that not to work quickly and smoothly.
It seems to me like the iPhone could meet all of these requirements with little problem, really. The "status symbol" factor is icing on the cake.
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Sure they won't (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sure they won't (Score:4, Insightful)
What's that smell / noise ? (Score:2, Informative)
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And Apple had Mac OS X running on Intel for years before they switched microprocessor platforms.
I think you're making the parent's case for them; companies normally roll out contingencies like the Blackberry/Windows mobile solution when their market or viability are threatened, as Apple's was with the PowerPC's performance/cost plateau and focus on embedded device market.
So the ads are true (Score:5, Funny)
It does have a web browser... (Score:3, Insightful)
Here's an idea...Write a web app!
It's so ingenious, I'm going to patent it. :D
I imagine you'll be able to store files locally and if you can access them thru Safari on the phone, than just do that. If not, write some security and put it on an extranet.
BlackBerry / PocketPC / iPhone (Score:4, Informative)
This is the main downfall of the iPhone. I have no doubt it will be popular with home users as well as business users who use their devices solely for email/calling. It will be a status symbol. But unless they open their source and allow developers to really get into the nitty gritty, I don't see it becoming the "one device to rule them all".
Many Windows Mobile 5 SmartPhones (Score:2)
Reading Gartner (Score:3, Insightful)
1. Take grain of salt.
2. Read Gartner analysis.
3. Consume Ripple as required.
Does not need to open Office Files (Score:5, Interesting)
Connect to a POP / IMAP Email system (it does).
Read PDF files. The image zoom functionality will work fine for reading PDFs.
Then on the backend, the iPhone uses will get a special email account where all Office attachments are automatically converted to a PDF file before being sent to the phone.
Fairly trivial thing to do.
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Maybe not Office, but Exchange (Score:2)
What is a big deal is an Exchange email client. Exchange is really dominant in corporations. I work at a very large Internet company. Many years ago all of the email accounts were on POP. There was a demand for E
FUD (Score:2)
Employees will like it (Score:5, Insightful)
Who wouldn't? Me! (Score:5, Insightful)
Look at the iPhone's battery life on apple.com.
Apply an adjustment for pre-release optimism.
Apply a reality adjustment - the only way to get listed standby times is to run your tests next to a tower.
You're gonna want two extra chargers, for the car and the office, because that's pitiful battery life even BEFORE you apply those adjustments.
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Unfortunately, if these businesses use MS Exchange or run a Blackberry server, the this is NOT a choice. As cool as the iPhone sounds on the surface, no Exchange sync or Blackberry service means no the iPhone is pretty much doomed to be a niche consumer product, not a true business device. While I won't go around endorsing Exchange, the fact of the matter is that it is extremely widespread and the exchange sync is the biggest reason why
yeah, right, when in doubt go for expense accounts (Score:2)
they don't wear wing tips and hold offsites at the golf course and discuss their stock options.
ATT is making the fatal assumption of assuming if they have an expensive geegaw, sell it where expense is no object... upper manglement of large corporations for "business use."
have fun, folks.
And a Treo is so wonderful? (Score:2)
And in the last 11 years I have replaced a
Details, details! (Score:2)
2. No removable battery or buttons.
3. Inability to write own applications.
4. ???
5. Profit!
Wait, what? OSX as a disadvantage on embedded hw? (Score:5, Insightful)
More for executives (Score:2)
Its all just a big e-penis competition between them. Somebody will get one ju
And what kind of market is that? (Score:2)
The market for "executive" phones is a fraction of the business market.
It's not an enterprise product! (Score:5, Insightful)
It doesn't integrate with Exchange Server, it has a music and movie player, and it can operate as a hard drive. This isn't an "Enterprise" product, this is a consumer product. This should be marketed as a replacement for your phone and your iPod, not as something middle-management uses to interfere with the folks who do the real work.
Web Apps (Score:5, Insightful)
It's too bad that companies can't write apps that run on websites.
It's too bad that the iPhone won't be able to browse websites with a fully-functional web browser.
Oh. Wait.
Finally, all the steps are visible! (Score:3, Informative)
2. The iPhone can browse websites with a fully-functional web browser.
3. This is the absolutely most airtime-intensive way to write applications.
4. PROFIT!
(for AT&T anyway)
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Wow, you're right. Ever since all desktop applications were moved to the web I wondered when those mobile devices would catch up. Who would ever want to run a native application these days when they could use a web site? After all, everyone knows that accessin
iPhone - Leopard - VoiceOver? (Score:2)
Then if women would just put their make-up on at home, the world would be a better place.
iPhone critics: Apple is 2 steps ahead of you (Score:5, Insightful)
Most companies in the tech industry can't handle more than one or two failures; they tend to go bankrupt. Those companies that survive product failures tend to try and forget about them instead of learn from them. For example, Microsoft could have learned a lot from Micrsoft Bob, if they so desired. Instead, they buried old Bob in the back and abandoned all attempts to do any radical user interface changes for Windows.
Apple, on the other hand, has a large number of failures to draw from, all of which are extensively documented. Apple also has a large number of successes, most of which probably haven't been documented enough. Why has the iPod really succeeded? Why and how has Mac OS X (and the Mac) been an unstoppable locomotive of progress?
The Enterprise market is smaller than you think, and requires substantial investments with questionable returns. Allowing developers onto your platform incurrs substantial support and infrastructure costs. Enterprise demands also tend to warp your perspective, as large accounts exert greater leverage on the development process than thousands of individuals. They also don't pay retail, and tend to demand substantial up-front and back-end discounts.
Apple has bypassed this in a simple manner, with a simple question: why have your enterprise apps on the phone when you have a live browser connection? If you can get to salesforce.com, google apps, and your custom web-enabled apps, who cares whether you can install a binary or not? In fact, not having to install anything is much better - no management issues. It's the freaking web, already. Everything that's important has been webified. Anything that isn't yet will be in 5 years. Everything that isn't nobody cares about.
The only "enterprise" feature of the iPhone would be the ability to hard-wire it to your corporate network instead of using the public network. That's it. If the iPhone can do that, then the internal IT guys can do the rest.
One word answer. (Score:2)
Airtime.
A side benefit? (Score:2)
Famous Last Words (Score:2)
So there will be an iPhone without a camera? (Score:2)
Does this mean there will be a camera free iPhone?
iPhone not programmable. (Score:2)
Smartphones (Score:2)
Any smartphone does, whether it's running Symbian, Palm OS, or Pocket PC phone edition.
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In the UK (and as far as I know most of the world) we get our phones *without* features disabled. If I write an app I can simply bluetooth it over to my phone. The same for wallpapers, ringtones, MP3s, and anything else I want on there.
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See... there's your problem right there. You're on Verizon. They gimp their phone's bluetooth just so you have to go through them for everything.
I've used T-Mobile & Cingluar (now AT&T) phones that I could load up my own java apps with no issues at all (at least, no issues with getting the program on the phone).
"shortcomings for business users" (Score:2)
If Apple sees an opportunity to get the iPhone adopted by business, I'm sure they'll compromise on their no custom applications policy too, if that's wh
Analysts On Crack (Score:2, Interesting)
So you're saying the CEO isn't gonna want one of these things? Please.
Also, you don't write applications that run *on* the iPhone... you write web applications that run in the *browser* that runs on the iPhone.
I can't believe Gartner is this clueless... I think someone at Apple forgot to pay them to gush.
Enterprise users can't write apps? Says who? (Score:3, Insightful)
Suits will love it (Score:3, Insightful)
ActiveSync is the missing ingredient (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Apple Bigots : get real (Score:4, Interesting)
One of the many reasons that Newton failed is the fact that it started out as a way to reinvent how we interact with computers, and then Apple decided to panic when they realised that the project could interfere with Mac sales, so they turned it into a Mac peripheral.
For iPhone, OTOH, Jobs took "Computer" out of the name of the company, so I don't think they are too worried about giving iPhone the room it needs to succeed...
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No wireless. Less space than Nomad. Lame.
Re:Apple Bigots : Check back @ Christmas (Score:2)
Consumer enthusiasm for a great advanced phone solution is obvious in the surveys of potential buyers. Lots of the enthusiasm is based on crummy hardware which everyone has had, like unreadable screens, batteries that fly out when dropped and keys that don't work.
Either you will be shown to be prescient, or you will want to forget you ever said that.
Re:Apple Bigots : get real (Score:5, Interesting)
From the summary: Analysts are baffled by the move.
From a 2001 article on the just-introduced iPod: [smartmoney.com]
A friend in the EDA industry who has been marketing these tools for twenty years notes that analysts are consistently wrong about the marketability of new products in established markets - he says: "those who can't sell, analyze."
Smartphones, baby. (Score:2)
When you include third party applications? Plenty...
When we did the rollout for iPaqs at our division we had half a dozen applications that ended up getting distributed with them because there were enough people using each to make it worth while.