“I think there’s a good chance the iPhone will fail to reach a significant penetration level in corporate hallways for a number of reasons,” Dave Mock writes for The Motley Fool.
“First, it should go without saying that the iPhone will have to be offered by Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint Nextel — not just AT&T,” Mock writes.
MacDailyNews Take: That’s Mock’s best point. For now.
Mock continues, “But fellow Fool Tim Beyers made another good point: Information technology (IT) departments hate change. But wait, Tim says, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry has successfully broken through IT resistance, and now has companies issuing the devices to millions of suit-and-tie types. Some believe that Apple has the same — or even better — chance at becoming a mainstay tool for the white-collar workforce.”
“But there’s a big reason why RIM won its long battle to capture the enterprise market: At the time, there was no viable alternative for email on the go,” Mock wirtes. “Apple today would have to do more than just match RIM’s ability to efficiently manage core enterprise applications such as email, calendar, and contacts. Steve Jobs would also have to give corporations good financial reasons to either toss out all those RIM servers or support both devices — partnerships with Microsoft and Cisco alone won’t do it. iPhone junkies caught with their pants down and no ROI to show will be sent back to their offices where their BlackBerrys wait on their desks.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “opportun” for the heads up.]
Unlike any RIM DingleBerry, Apple’s iPhone offers full web browsing that actually works, Dave. With the one and only Multi-Touch™ UI. And about 50 other reasons. It’s RIM that can’t match Apple. Not even close. Where’ve you been for the last year and a half, Dave?
“… have to give corporations good financial reasons to either toss out all those RIM servers or support both..”
Here’s one, no special servers necessary.
millions of suit-and-tie types have cars with the Apple dock connector installed by the factory, and would love to plug the iPhone into it on the way to and from the office.
You can’t do that with your BlackBerry Mr. IT man
Lotus 1-2-3 was once so entrenched in the corporate world that the pundits thought it could never be replaced. With companies dependent on their many Lotus 1-2-3 macros, changing spreadsheets would be far too expensive. Then a spreadsheet with a better interface came along and Lotus 1-2-3 was history. The better interface was from Microsoft. How things have changed!!
The Apps Store will provide the avalanche of productivity applications that RIM will not be able to match.
Also, from a cost perspective, RIM is hugely more expensive than Apple’s alternatives to push email.
Finally, a lot of those types want the iPhone, and sooner or later they will get the IT drones off their ass and cram them down their clueless throat.
Don’t you love it when non-technical types try to influence the sell pf a product…
Don’t be too sure about this. The iPhone keyboard is not as easy to use as a Blackberry and a lot of people are used to using their Blackberries for eMail not surfing the Web. I don’t think a hell of a lot of business people give two hoots about surfing the Web with a portable device they just want their eMails and calendars so they can feel a lot more important than they actually are
<b>”Apple’s iPhone offers full web browsing that actually works.”</i>
I love Apple and some of their products, but…
…if corporate guys with failing eyesight can’t see because of the tiny screen also can’t type because the touch keyboard is too small, there is no tactile feedback to prevent mistakes…
…also not many sites are optimized for the iPhone’s limitations…
The Blackberry will rule.
Apple isn’t interested in the enterprise or they would have been there already.
Apple is only interested in the consumer market because they fail in the corporate market.
“The iPhone keyboard is not as easy to use as a Blackberry”
In your opinion.
And IMO, the Blackberry keyboard was a PITA to use especially with multiple characters per tiny key.
Most of these ‘journalists’ are idiots. That’s why they’re not doing something productive.
One key reason for the impending success of iPhone 2 – it’s an iPod. I can’t watch movies on a typical BlackBerry.
@mad Mac –
Are you typing while you sleep ? “Apple isn’t interested in the enterprise”. Did you miss the keynote ? Of course Apple is interested. Do you realise how much cash RIM, for example, made from the enterprise ? Or Dell ?
This guy is a “mainstay tool”.
Apple is not after the Fortune 1000, but rather the remaining 6 million businesses in the US and their counterparts worldwide. Go suck an egg, Mock, your opinion is worthless.
On the contrary, the best reasons to switch to an iPhone ARE financial and productivity. Crackberry is nothing more than a expan$sive cell phone with email (and not very pretty at that) with tons of system administration headaches. Don’t ask the IT manager. Ask the IT sys admins and average BB users – who are often FORCED by their work to have BBs – which is easier to manage and more productive to use. Want to bid which platform will win that side-by-side Total ROI comparison? I suspect most these tech journalists never had to support these RIM jobs, and unfortunately most IT decisions – like the decision to use BBs – are made by top execs and not the majority of IT personnel and affected users. The popularity of CrackBerries and Windows PCs are the best proof that today’s business IT management has gone terribly wrong.
He forgot to say that iPhone will fail because it does not have a litle stupid plastic keyboard…..
@The Great Apple Fanboy Massacre
Shouldn’t you be doing your homework instead of posting here ? Don’t forget your momma will be calling you soon for dinner.
Re: the watching movies quote; while you’re still in bed, I’m on a train at 5:30AM on my way in to Wall Street; at that time, or when I’m stuck in an airport waiting for a flight, having an iPod to relieve the tedium is convenient.
And if you think the BBerry is a decent enterprise-class phone, you’re a luddite. Stick to your email; I’m happy using Safari to read Bloomberg news…
@Mad Mac Maniac:
“…if corporate guys with failing eyesight can’t see because of the tiny screen also can’t type because the touch keyboard is too small, there is no tactile feedback to prevent mistakes…”
The virtual keyboard is quite large compared to beans on DingleBerry and they can see anything on the screen just by pinching. Nothing is too small.
Jeesh!
Hey bjh, what a great come back. Got nothing relevant to say, so make a “momma” crack, or suggest the poster must be in school. While you, important business man, are on the 5.30 train to “Wall Street”. I thought the train cleaning shift was at the end of the day, not the beginning.
It is just amazing how the knives come out on things that are not even particularly anti Apple. Mock’s only point is that Apple will need to deliver more than sexy interface’s, music and video if it want’s to unseat the Crackberry. I have to use a Crack for work. I don’t like it, but I wouldn’t expect my employer to incur the expense to replace all the blackberries we have issued just because the iPhone is somehow sexier. We have other things to spend money on than seeking the approval of the juvenile fanboys and geeks that post venom on this board. Get over it.
All you nay-sayers have forgotten one thing.
The widespread interest of many business people in the ‘old’ iPhone was well documented, and that really DID have shortcomings as far as the corporate world was concerned.
So what do you think the reaction will be to the new iPhone with most of these shortcomings addressed?
The 3G iPhone is going to sell like hot cakes in the corporate world, in academia, and everywhere else!
Dans tout le monde!
The ONLY thing that is indeed holding iPhone from its potential here in the U.S. is its exclusive contract with AT&T;. I am sure Apple can easily have the right transmitters for all future carriers.
Regarding the stock itself… there are too many unknowns with OUTSIDE forces. Apple itself is a strong company. But Wall St sentiment affects all stocks – even the best companies.
I have no doubt AAPL will be @300 by MacWorld 2010 .
@ldm
“Lotus 1-2-3 was once so entrenched in the corporate world that the pundits thought it could never be replaced. With companies dependent on their many Lotus 1-2-3 macros, changing spreadsheets would be far too expensive. Then a spreadsheet with a better interface came along and Lotus 1-2-3 was history. The better interface was from Microsoft. How things have changed!!”
Enterprise customers transitioned over to Windows in a big way beginning with version 3.0. Excel was originally developed for the Mac, and could easily be ported over to Windows. Lotus had to develop its own Windows interface from the ground up, and the early Windows versions of 1-2-3 were awful.
But, Lotus 1-2-3 actually held onto its market lead until MS simultaneously released Windows95 and Office95. The new Windows versions of Lotus 1-2-3 and Novell Word Perfect were not ready at launch. And if you believe Novell (which recently won a lawsuit against MS dating back to the Windows95 launch), the reason is that MS purposely withheld key Windows APIs to prevent competing office app developers from getting their updated products out around Windows95’s launch. They also withheld the Windows95 OEM license from IBM, which had just purchased Lotus, until minutes before launch, allowing competitors to get a jumpstart.
Once Win95 came out, MS could market Office95 as the office suite that worked best with Win95. While this was true, it was also a preordained outcome, since MS had basically crippled competing office suites by denying them access to information about the OS. By the time competing office suites got optimized for Win95, MS had already taken over the lead, and used its Windows OEM license agreements to further lock buyers into MS Office. So, it’s not as simple as Excel coming out with a better interface, and corporate users suddenly flocking over to it.
I hate typing on my Treo 700, which isn’t much different from my brother’s Blackberry. I doubt I’ll like typing on an iphone much better, if at all. What I will like, however, is having a decent phone (the Treo 700 is a step backwards from the Treo 650, phonewise) and stellar web browser.
IT will fight the iphone, although I think Apple has done enough to get it through enough IT department that they’ll more than meet their goal of 10million units in 2008.
One other point: I don’t value being able to respond to emails on the fly but it’s very helpful to read them. 95% of the time, I wait until I’m back in the office to respond to emails with another email. I can often make a phone call while out in the field based off an email I receive.
I am reminded of the sorry state of Architectural CAD software and hardware in the US. The vast majority of architects use AutoCad on the PC, and very few use the 3D capabilities of the software to full advantage. The dead weight inertia of legacy hardware and software is enormous. I’ve been using ArchiCad on the Mac for years, but then again, I’m on my own, so making that choice was easy. When the cost of training is added to the cost of hardware, software and the sheer resistance to change, I guess I can understand the reasons, but… It’s just so sad. Like Macintosh vs Windows, or ArchiCad vs. Autocad, people who haven’t tried the iPhone just have no idea what they are missing out on.
The current thinking is that it’s the employees who will effect change in the future, not the IT department. More and more staff will turn up with Apple gear and the IT guys will have no choice but to support them.
Dear Apple,
No video or landscape text input on the iPhone means no massive corporate rollout by me or any of my golfing chums.
Sincerely,
Bob C. Eo
CEO, Jakhoff Corp of America, LLC.