“When Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone was ready for enterprise use, the announcement caused a stir that few of the world’s iconic businessmen could match. It seemed that everyone from rank-and-file worker-bees to CEOs wanted to get their corporate applications served up on the hot new device. Why? This was Apple — a synonym for awe-inspiring design and coolness, the antithesis to stodgy old corporate technology that burns the eyes red and freezes computers blue,” C.G. Lynch writes for InfoWorld.
“But some Apple-watchers and evangelist IT practitioners who use Macs for business think the announcement runs deeper than the iPhone itself in its importance. Some believe it could usher in the era of a more enterprise-friendly Apple,” Lynch writes.
“Such a paradigm shift, they argue, could serve as the final ingredient in the boiling cauldron being stirred by employees at the edge of organizations who have become dissatisfied with corporate technology and who have turned to innovative options in the consumer space to meet their needs,” Lynch writes.
Full article here.
Our division accounting department recently informed us that they are going to issue a Blackberry to replace our cell phones. I am requesting that I keep my iPhone and pay for my own cell expenses. they don’t like it but they can’t justify why I should use their phone other than to access corporate email during the day but I can do that from my home desktop at night.
It’s the accounting people who don’t understand. They don’t like change.
Clearly, licensing ActiveSync indicates a more enterprise-friendly Apple. But why should the proliferation of iPhones have any impact on the enterprise desktop environment?
iPhone 2.0 will affect the mobile wares. but as for the hardware stuff, Apple is not looking to jump all in on the enterprise iron. It will have an interesting affect on what IT people & execs may use at their respective homes.
the halo affect will be towards consumer purchases versus business.
I had a problem with Mail on Tiger Server some time ago. I called Apple tech support and spoke to the only server level tech support person who was on duty, worldwide, at that time of the day (it was the evening in Australia). At first he put me off, telling me this was going to be chargeable – when i insisted that i had to resolve this issue as my mail server was down and would not come up, he told me that he only knew the GUI.
Much to his relief, I then solved the problem myself – it was a bug in the GUI which caused the underlying parameter files to become corrupt.
Flakey software and non existent support is not what any level of business expects. Enterprise penetration, in any meaningful way, is some way off for Apple.
Nobody got fired for buying <strike>IBM</strike>, er…
I think some of my fellow mac users are new to mac or just walking off a cliff blindly.
The IT world at this moment is driven by cost. Everything is scaled to be low cost (at least in fortune 100 world), why would any CIO approve a budget to get a bunch of mac’s when a pc box can be had for last I knew $500-600 dollars? It’s economics. Out of the 6,000 something pc’s & laptops in our office I can think of maybe 20 mac users and 19 of them are in the marketing / graphic department. The other one is a Dual G4 I rescued from the trash heap and keep around to test entourage against Exchange and other functionality as 3-4 years ago the executive set started asking about the Imac’s and their kids all had ipods. I think Apple has built a nice “lifestyle” way about computing but many of those same things won’t survive corporate world or translate into business drivers. Now if they could make a bare bones G5 for under a grand .. might get some heads turning.
The other IT comment on here is I know true, we have hundreds of home grown applications that would take years and millions to recode to run on a mac, no CIO is going to walk that plank.
Iphone 2.0 has some serious work to prove itself, I’ve used every new mobile device the past 10 years and including ActiveSync doesn’t mean anything other then yes you meet basic Exchange security now.
I think Apple’s done some great things re-inventing their product line, it’s light years beyond the old mac iifx and iie I used in the past through my current G5 and Imac.
Apple needs to dedicate itself to corporate IT and compete with Dell and IBM for market share and I don’t see that happening. But who knows maybe later this year when we have a few Iphones Apple will be making cold calls to companies.
In 20+ years in IT I can’t recall ever meeting a Apple Sales Rep …
If you have an IT guy that needs to be Microsoft certified to get his job, how well do you think the iPhone will be allowed into this Microsoft-oriented enterprise system? Either iPhone 2.0 or it’s upgraded OS has got to make it easy for these people to see the light. It’s got to be pretty damned painless to welcome iPhones in.
Apple needs to work on their technical support, especially across platforms. Listen to the Windows Switchers as they gripe about Apple support. The same with the iPhone. I hope that Apple gears up for this.
I can decide. I am the Graphic Design manager at a prestigious company. I wanted an xServe for my group and guess what? I got a new xServe and I am going to JAM it into out network! IT guys think they rule, but I think the user will win this particular battle.