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Can Apple CEO Steve Jobs sell big business on the iPhone?

Thursday, June 19, 2008 · 11:14 pm · 31 Comments

“Steve Jobs has won over legions of new customers since he returned to Apple, but one key group has stubbornly eluded him: big business,” Jon Fortt and Michal Lev-Ram write for Fortune.

“The reason isn’t a mystery. Apple’s mercurial CEO decided a decade ago that corporate IT departments weren’t worth the trouble. Though they buy tech gear by the truckload, when it comes to computers they often favor stripped-down, predictable technology – the stuff Jobs finds boring. Rather than chase that business, he has courted upscale consumers with innovative devices like the iMac and iPod that are as fashionable as they are functional. It’s hard to argue with the results: Apple stock is up nearly 2,000 percent in the last 10 years,” Fortt and Lev-Ram write.

“But now as Jobs seeks to turbocharge sales of the 3G iPhone, he’ll have no choice but to embrace the corporate stiffs,” Fortt and Lev-Ram write. “That’s because while Apple’s computer and iPod sales are healthy, analysts believe the popular smartphone has the most growth potential – and business buyers could be the key to its success.”

Fortt and Lev-Ram ask, “Can Apple do it?”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Carl H" for the heads up.]

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Comment Feed

31 Comments

1 2 Next »

Joe

Thursday, June 19, 2008 - 11:41 pm · Reply

I received an email today from my company’s IT department that stated that, as of July 11, iPhones would be fully supported. This is a respectable company ($1B+ in annual revenue) and fairly well known.
Jubei

Thursday, June 19, 2008 - 11:57 pm · Reply

Umm no, MS monopoly and IT/CIO who only sees MS as a default standard is what stopping Mr. Jobs. Yes the generation of these people are still running the game.
Ampar

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 12:03 am · Reply

Yes and no.
TowerTone

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 12:09 am · Reply

“Can Apple CEO Steve Jobs sell big business on the iPhone?”

Depends on who he calls….
Shieldzee

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 12:19 am · Reply

At my company (Telecom, NASDAQ traded) we have a hardcore CSO that controls everything. His position is that with Active Sync including security policy enforcement and remote wipe is that there is no reason to say no to the iPhone. He gets to keep his Exchange environment and we get our iPhones. July 11th cannot come fast enough.
MacSheikh

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 12:28 am · Reply

Lucky you!
MacSheikh

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 12:30 am · Reply

@ Joe/Shieldzee

Lucky you!
Digits McGee

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 12:33 am · Reply

Yeah, I hate it when people I don’t try to catch elude me.
Macromancer

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 12:41 am · Reply

Over time, all the young kids that got their first Apple product by way of the iPod will grow up and become the IT nerds and gurus of these companies, and the idiotic discrimination against Apple products will slowly wilt away.
Ampar

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 12:47 am · Reply

“. . . will grow up and become the IT nerds and gurus of these companies . . . “

I thought those guys were farmed from cultures in underground labs.
Macmaniac

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 1:49 am · Reply

I am getting so sick to death of the Crackberry that I have to use at work that it would be a dream come true if we switched to the iPhone, but to be perfectly frank, I’ll see it when I believe it.
TheConfuzed1

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 2:28 am · Reply

@ Macmaniac–

Unfortunately for you, believing isn’t seeing. :p
mike

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 4:18 am · Reply

“”The reason isn’t a mystery. Apple’s mercurial CEO decided a decade ago that corporate IT departments weren’t worth the trouble.”

Case in point: Windows Vista and its 11 versions.

I absolutely reject the premise of this retarded article: Apple doesn’t want to be a Business OS. They just want a little Exchange functionality so that Corporate users can get their email on the fly.
Reclaimer

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 5:47 am · Reply

Yes he can!
Harvey

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 5:51 am · Reply

Steve Jobs doesn’t have to sell big business on the iPhone. Big business has to cope with the iPhone.

Even the system administrator at my Microsoft Gold partner is poised to buy an iPhone as soon as they are available in July.
Ray

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 6:51 am · Reply

Jobs has done all he can. It is up to IT guys to see the cost benefit of pushing Exchange mail themselves instead of paying a 3rd party to perform the same task. A big selling point IT guys will have is that confidential e-mails no longer have to make the trek to RIM and back.
DanielM

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 8:04 am · Reply

If Apple were only faced with one enemy it would be easy. However, look at what Apple is faced with.

• IT personnel and departments whose primary job is to keep their jobs.

• Dozens of clone manufacturers whose primary job is to keep their business

• Tens of thousands of Windows’ consultants, programmers, service departments whose primary functions is to keep their businesses and services, as well as to support IT to do the same

• Millions of bytes of erroneous, misguided and outright lies against Apple in print, visual and electronic media being dumped on us every minute of the day

What many don’t realize is the cost to convert. For most companies, the cost would be prohibitive. Replacing their legacy systems with new Macs is one thing. Re-education is another.

But most important is the perception that Mac just doesn’t have the software. Which by most accounts is a misconception or ignorance on behalf of the business IT departments and/or consultants.

Now we know that Macs can run whatever OS they want. That most software used in business is available in both Mac and Windows platforms. And that it wouldn’t take much to rewrte specilized DOS/Windows for OS X. Most likely, their legacy software would enjoy the benefit of being re-done.

Perhaps we can do something to further Apples endeavor to breach the business barrier.

Whether it is Microsoft, Adobe, Quark, etc., those companies that build separate OS versions should let us, switch to whatever version we want for the same price when we upgrade. I am sure that a lot of businesses who have spent a ton of money on Office for WIndows would rethink their next computer purchase if Microsoft let them choose between OSs on the next upgrade. Heck, why not do what Apple does with FileMaker, i.e., include both versions in the same package.

And if anything, I would suggest that a lot of people would not hesitate to move to Mac, but more important for the MS, Adobes and Quarks, etc., a significant increase in sales from those that held off in the first place.

Let’s make noise.
John Gee

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 8:14 am · Reply

While IT guys may be Windows through and through, they take pride in the ability to make any gadget work. It’s their job to look after the minutiae, making sure all of their devices play nice. They know every little technical detail. And not all devices are Microsoft devices… and there are plenty that aren’t (like all of their switches and routers!)

So why wouldn’t they approach the iPhone just like everything else they do?
MikeR

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 8:26 am · Reply

@DanielM
Something tells me Steve Balmer would not go for that.
Radius

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 8:29 am · Reply

To eventually fully open IT’s eyes, I can only hope that Microsoft is as thorough and diligent with Windows 7 as they were with Vista. That would be great for Apple!
R

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 8:39 am · Reply

Some will come willingly, some because they are forced. In time, IT won’t be the same.
Famous Grouse

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 8:43 am · Reply

Good grief, doesn’t Fortune have anything else to write about?

Apple is in this for the long haul, not next quarter. Little by little, IT clowns will either be converted or die. When something provides a competitive advantage, businesses will be forced to adopt it or fall behind. If the iPhone, or any Apple technology, provides that advantage, then it will be adopted.

We should also bear in mind that competition is sometimes the thing that pushes a dying technology to its performance limits, even if it is ultimately superseded. Apple should be prepared for not just push back but actual improvement in their competitors offerings. Their apparent willingness to address business needs (e.g. remote wipe) in iPhone 2.0 while at the same time leaving a list of features that can be added to iPhone 3.0 (video chat, cut and paste) indicates they have this game plan in mind.

And, as I have said before, I don’t think Apple cares about the Fortune 1000, they want the other 6 million businesses, and that’s in the US.
MobileAdmin

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 8:45 am · Reply

I love reading all these comments who by the majority are by USERS who have no clue about managing thousands of mobile devices.

1. Exchange ActiveSync is governed by Active Directory settings so unless you either have access to AD or your company has everyone enabled by default for ActiveSync (likely not) good luck bringing your personal Iphone to work expecting it to work.

2. I’m also in the Iphone 2.0 beta and while it’s doing some stuff right it’s still night and day between what I can do with Blackberry Enterprise Server and the granual control we have via policies to lock down functionality, get usage reporting etc. With ActiveSync you get the same as Windows Mobile – 3 security options and of those 2 are not working 100%! The password policy still lists a time out lock of 4 hours, when our policy limit is 30 minutes and worse after the invalid password attempts the iphone DOES NOT erase, it goes through a series of “locks” and can be unlocked as easily as plugging into Itune – real secure.

3. I want nothing to do with the deployement / support of Itunes on our desktops/laptops. Apple needs to drop this and provide over the air activation like Blackberry, this impacts the ability to deploy devices without having to first touch every single one. Another note by our compliance department is what about the legality of files users may have on their iphone and those would sync to our systems if we allow itunes? It’s a real issue for companys with concerns over copyright infringement.

4. During the OS 2.0 beta I’ve passed the iphone around to all the power users and people who have inquired about supporting the iphone .. feedback from everyone is the same. Nice GUI, Nice web experience. But I’ll stick with my Blackberry as it’s easier to use and I like having a keypad.

All that said, the iphone is a fantastic device and I see it having a secondary role for most of the excutives we support, they use the BB all week and come weekend they use the iphone as email is lighter and they want to enjoy the web / music / movie etc.

So to recap until Apple has a solution that offers the SAME security and functionality as the BES it will not be “taking over” anything other then the consumer market and those companies that do not have tight security requirements.

We will no doubt support the iphone but our standard will remain Blackberry and until all the above noted issues are resolved it’s insane to consider a full enterprise switch and lose all the controls/metrics you currently have with Blackberry.

I love the digs at the NOC when basically MobileME is basically the same thing. In case your not up to speed all data between BES and device is fully encrytped via Triple DES or AES so there is zero chance of your email being hacked/stolen.
www.thefreemac.com

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 8:48 am · Reply

What Apple need is a good server offering that supports thin clients (with the power of an iPhone and the secure OS that it offers) that could reduce a company’s infrastructure bill.

This, with connectivity for iPhones and full Macs, could replace the whole of a corporate system. Make big noise about the UNIX underpinnings and get SAP and Oracle running on it and you are on to a winner.

With virtualisation, you could even run windows sessions to allow apps like Sage to run.
ron

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 8:56 am · Reply

Macmaniac, “but to be perfectly frank, I’ll see it when I believe it.”

I didn’t know your name was Perfectly Frank.

SB, you’ll hear it when you hear it, surely? And don’t call me Shirley.