“A recent study shows that iOS devices require the least support of the major mobile platforms,” Galen Gruman reports for InfoWorld. “The device that IT prefers, the Research in Motion BlackBerry, is more difficult to support, but as they continue to fade from the business environment, the IT mobile support burden should decrease. In fact, aggressively replacing BlackBerrys with iPhones is probably the quickest way to lighten the IT mobile support load. Android devices require the most support, but their current lack of basic enterprise security and manageability means you’re not likely to allow their use for business purposes and, thus, don’t need to support them.”
“That study points to an unsurprising reason: The iOS user interface is easier for users, so they tend to need less help. Reports from Forrester Research and Aberdeen Research shows that users who choose their own devices (no matter who pays for them) are more self-supporting,” Gruman reports. “Plus, if the device is a personal possession, even if also accessed for business, users are much more careful about not losing and not damaging the item. All of this explains the lower support overhead for iOS devices.”
Gruman reports, “But at some point, IT will have to deal with iOS devices directly. When that happens, here are ways to keep the effort low while meeting users’ needs.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “j s” for the heads up.]
No arguments there. Apple has always been the clear leader with intuitive user interface. It just works!
Not surprised blackberry’s require a chunk of support.
Having just spent the last half-hour with 2 different Verizon reps trying to troubleshoot an Exchange issue on a Blackberry Bold, all I can say is “duh”.
This goes for Android and Windows on the desktop. After rooting out a particularly infuriating access issue on someone’s XP box, I turned to him and said “Why the fsck would you do this to yourself?”. He did not have an answer.
XP was Microsoft’s pinnacle. It’s been downhill from there.
If that’s MS’s pinnacle, then Death Valley is higher than Mt. Everest.
Pinnacle in terms of popularity perhaps (due to the rise of OS X), but Windows 7 is a much better, more stable OS. You’ll notice that there haven’t really been any virus outbreaks and it’s a very stable system.
Windows seems to be good every other version: Windows 2 (meh), Windows 3.0, 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7… More or less consistently decent every second version.
Before the IT doofuses can support iOS they will have to manufacture some sort of a nightmare scenario and apply a huge layer of complexity to ensure their own pathetic jobs.
Of course, the cellular companies are also partly guilty of making things harder than they have to be.
I spent 13 minutes on AT&T’s “611” service this morning.
Why?
Because my Blackberry with unlimited domestic service and with a world voice/data roaming service that I’ve been using for years to call back to the USA, as well to place calls to other countries while I’m in Europe DOES NOT INCLUDE allowing me to call internationally from …wait for it … within the USA!
Unbelievable.
Supposedly, I’m supposed to now sign up for a _third_ service plan.
-hh
I can’t possibly imagine how would one assume that an international calling plan (always a separate add-on, with most US carriers) was to be included in a rather unrelated service (voice/data roaming).
And on the subject of international calling from mobile phones, vast majority of us who do it on a regular basis don’t bother with international calling plans offered by US carriers, as they are still colossal rip-offs. Instead, we use calling plans offered by independent telcos (you dial an 800-number, which connects you to the telco, then dial the international number; you get a bill from that telco, and you’re just using your domestic minutes for the 800-number call). It is a bit clunkier than direct dialing, but is infinitely cheaper (for example, AT&T’s rates on their international plan for calls to Serbia are some $0.55, while my cheap telco charges $0.06 per minute. AT&T is 9 times more expensive!).
It’s a US based phone. Basically you are paying for AT&T to make deals with these other international partners. You haven’t paid AT&T directly for international. It makes sense for these to be separate.
What is supremely bizarro about the source article is summarized in its sub-title:
As employees are allowed to bring in their own mobile devices, IT frets about the support burden — but it needn’t worry
This guy does NOT understand how typical IT staff work: They WANT heavy support requirements. Support = Technocrat Prestige = Job = $$$$
IOW: IT staff will NOT ‘fret’ about providing required support for iPhones brought into work. Instead:
IT staff WILL ‘fret’ about LOSING required support for the POS devices the iOS devices are replacing.
iDevice (as per all Apple products) = Less Support = Lost Technocrat Prestige = Fewer IT Jobs = Lost $$$$ = Doom.
Typical IT staff are SCARED of iOS devices and will FUD them at every opportunity in order to force naive staff to use WORSE products instead, the ones with the highest support requirements.
This phenomenon is specifically why Microsoft Windows continues to rule the Enterprise and US federal government computers. *DING* 😛