“On August 4, TechRepublic polled its group of U.S. IT leaders and asked, ‘Does your IT department support the iPhone as an approved device?’ The jury, made up of the first 12 respondents, had seven IT chiefs who said ‘no’ and five who said ‘yes,'” Hiner reports. “So, 42% of these CIOs now support the iPhone and many of them offered interesting commentary on why they do or don’t allow the iPhone.”
From the “Yes” category:
The iPhone is one of the most innovative and revolutionary end-user products developed in the last 5 years. Like most IT Departments, we boycotted the first release of the iPhone but the subsequent release that supported [Exchange] ActiveSync was a game changer for corporate IT. Over the last several years we have supported mobile OSes from Palm, Blackberry, and Microsoft. The support and training requirements for the iPhone are orders of magnitude less than the mobile OSes offered by competing vendors. Another big plus of supporting the iPhone is the general excitement and enthusiasm from the end users and a corresponding decrease in the perception that IT is a wet blanket that is an impediment to the use of consumer-friendly products. Overall, implementing and supporting the iPhone has been an incontrovertible win for the IT department and end users. – Mike Wagner, CIO of Stone & Youngberg in San Francisco
It’s actually been a great device for the IT group itself, used to remotely manage servers and other tools. The sales folks love it, and it has so far been less of a support issue than the other phones. – Edward Beck, Vice President of IT for Line 6, Inc.
From the “No” category:
We still view the iPhone as a personal device, not a business device. – Kurt Schmidt, IT Director of Capital Credit Union
No, because we have had bad coverage from AT&T. – David Wilson, Director of IT for VectorCSP in Elizabeth City, NC)
There’s much more in the full article here.
Damn.
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Used to be just me and a few other super-cool girls who had iPhones.
Soon, all the Jocks and Dilton Doilys will have them too.
“bad coverage from AT&T;” is not a good enough reason NOT to use the iPhone. We had the same problem. What did we do? Installed an AT&T;tower on campus. Problem solved. We now have a growing number of execs (50+) demanding iPhones. This is out of 700 persons worldwide and growing. The Exchange integration made a big difference in their decision to move away from their temperamental Blackberries.
OK – given, not every company is big enough to demand a tower, but we leveraged the amount of AT&T;users on campuses and in the field and they were more than happy to accommodate us.
“… it has so far been less of a support issue than the other phones.”
That will all change once I con those fools into buying my new VIRUS.app for $20.99!!! BWAH-HA-HA-HA (Still pending App Store approval)
LOL, Elizabeth City, NC! Of course the coverage sucks, it’s in the middle of nowhere. I had a home 30 miles from Elizabeth City, in Edenton, and you could only get AT&T;along the shores of the Albemarle Sound.
@Missy Pants
You still come here, don’t you? Coolfactor of infinity.
Note: Nod to the person who occasionally posts here as “coolfactor”.
@Anonymous©: At least all three Wilsons who said “No” had a valid excuse, coverage.
Schmidt (and Mooreheads) sound like IT douchebags with their heads so far up Ballmer’s ass that they hasn’t seen any sunshine since the early 90s.
And the other two “No”s were from people who wouldn’t “support” the iPhone, but wouldn’t stop employees from using it (translation they don’t have to pay for ’em).
Guess they have to… DUH.
“Schmidt (and Mooreheads) sound like IT douchebags with their heads so far up Ballmer’s ass that they hasn’t seen any sunshine since the early 90s”
That was my impression too.
No we won’t support anything that our employees get any pleasure out of using. He seems like he’d be happier working as a torturer in a mideaval dungeon.
Once they begin to accept the iPhone, it won’t be much longer until we’ll
see a big spike in OS X Server adoption in the backoffice, just as we’ve seen a spike in Macintosh sales since the iPhone was introduced.
In a few short years, Apple could easily dominate “Round 2” of the computer wars (handheld computing), and could ultimately go back and win
“Round 1” (desktop computing) as a result.
any place that close to something called the dismal swamp shouldn’t be surprised they don’t have coverage – sounds like one of those cell phone commercials!
I love it. Reason #1 that IT professionals now support the iPhone: “It makes us look cool!”
There IS a God!
like we didn’t see this coming…
the Yes camp & No camps just stated what has already been said regarding the adoption of the iPhone in the consumer space…
the only threat to iPhone dominance is the exclusive AT&T;deal… and maybe Android.