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Of course, with New Year's coming, it's time for lists. CIO.com has gone after both low hanging fruit, and a hitcount monster, namely, the iPhone, and Ten Reasons no to support the iPhone. Now to be fair, this isn't really a CIO.com - originated piece, but one from Forrester Research. However, I'm not paying almost $280 bucks to read the original bad analysis. I have gifts to buy, and no one on my list wants crap like that.
But, as an IT professional, I do have to read at least the CIO version, and while there are some really solid points, the others? Not so much. In order:
1) The iPhone Doesn't Allow Data on the Device to be EncryptedI do agree with this. While you can't easily stop someone from getting corporate email on an iPhone, (Unless you block the ability to forward email, and we all know that's not happening), the inability to encrypt data, or enforce password policies can make the iPhone problematic for the business world.There's currently no way for enterprises to secure sensitive data on iPhones through file or disk encryption, according to Forrester. There's also no way for IT to enforce password policies since the decision to use a password (and when to change it) is up to the user.
That's not the same as "OMGNO!!!!!!111". Not all businesses are the same, and encryption/password policies have to reflect the reality of that business. If you don't carry around sensitive data on mobile devices, or if all the iPhone is used for is email that doesn't have sensitive information, then this issue isn't. But, it is at least a legitimate point. Unlike the next one:
2) The iPhone Does Not Natively Support "Push" Corporate E-mail or Wireless Calendar SyncingPush e-mail (e-mail that is delivered to handhelds immediately upon receipt in a user's mailbox) is an essential feature for a business device because of the productivity such a feature enables, according to Forrester. If users need to physically retrieve messages--as opposed to having those messages pushed directly to them--they won't get them as quickly as possible and they'll waste time in the process. The iPhone can sync with Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes over IMAP and SMTP, Forrester says, but IT infrastructure must be tweaked accordingly or a separate gateway product must be purchased and even then mail is delivered only every 15 minutes.
The Apple iPhone
Apple's device also doesn't wirelessly sync with PCs, which means users must have access to the company's proprietary USB sync cable to retrieve calendar updates or contact changes, according to Forrester. If a meeting plan or location has been changed at the last minute, an iPhone user on the go could easily not get the notification in time.
Okay, so this one's stupid. First, the push thing is hardly a life or death requirement. It's a convenience. IMAP on an agressive schedule means you get your email about every 15 minutes. While I tend to prefer every ten minutes, this is not something that's going to make you lose your business and end your days on the street. If someone has to get a hold of you for a meeting that's suddenly happening RIGHT NOW, here's a suggestion...you have a phone, they should CALL YOU. The same thing with the lack of wireless sync to individual desktops. First, that's such an unreliable way to sync, it created an industry to bypass the desktop, and have the phone sync directly with the server. Goodlink anyone? Exchange OTA ActiveSync? Those aren't popular because desktop syncing is so damned popular. It also ignores, completely, the fact that starting with Windows Mobile 5, and it's version of ActiveSync, Microsoft disabled wireless desktop syncing. So guess what? Yeah, Windows Mobile devices are just as screwed here. Besides, if you send an email, you'll get the friggin' thing in the next 15 or so minutes anyway, so it's not that you won't get it, you just won't get it now. Maybe..because Forrester ignores the fact that email is neither guaranteed nor reliable. If your network is getting hammered by a large scale SMTP attack, it is entirely conceivable that your oh-so-important email is going to get delayed. In a building made with much love for granite and steel? You may not have enough signal to get the email. On a plane? Not getting the email. Driving? Well, you may not get the email, and if you do, I hope to $DEITY$ that you aren't reading your email while driving. Forrester is living in a bit of a fantasy land here.
3) The iPhone Does Not Run Third-Party Applications Without Voiding Its WarrantyThat's funny, it doesn't seem to have stopped SAP from porting its stuff to Web interfaces so its sales force can use iPhones. Who tested it? Why, another small company nobody's heard of: Intel. Intel had many nice things to say about it too:Though Apple has promised a software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone so that external developers and businesses can create their own applications to run on the device, the iPhone does not currently support such applications--unless certain device components are hacked, which voids the phone's warranty. Companies that deploy, for example, sales force automation apps on mobile devices won't be able to port those applications to the iPhone until this issue is resolved.
"It didn't look like SAP," said Daryl Ganas, director of sales and marketing operations for Intel, one of several companies that has helped SAP test the software.It would seem that there is significant customer demand for such a thing. Not my words, but rather SAP's:"It felt and looked to me like something my sales people would use," he said in an interview
"The iPhone has become such a popular thing," said Bob Stutz, a SAP senior vice president who is responsible for developing customer relationship management software. "Everybody wants the ease of use of the iPhone."Hmm...and it also seems that moving applications to a web UI would help deal with that whole "has sensitive data on it" thing. Funny that.
4) The iPhone Cannot be Locked or Wiped RemotelyThis one's legitimate. In a case where you have sensitive data, phones are small and easily lost/stolen. A remote wipe function can be critical to a business.Forrester says the single most important feature of mobile device management offerings is remote lock and data wipe functionality, both of which the iPhone lacks. Apple doesn't currently offer any mobile device management software that's anything like the many offerings available for BlackBerrys, Windows Mobile or Symbian devices. Forrester doesn't anticipate any vendors offering such a product before mid-to-late 2008.
5) The iPhone Lacks a Physical KeyboardOh gimme a break. You aren't writing 3,000 word missives on a thumb keyboard anyway, and if you have big hands like me, there's not a thumb keyboard made that you can type any more accurately on than the iPhone's. I have to pay exactly the same amount of attention to my typing on a thumb keyboard as I do on an iPhone. This one is "Crap, we need something to make it ten, bitch about the keyboard again". Dear Forrester: no one really cares.The iPhone's touch screen interface and virtual keyboard may be cool, but it is not ideal for power users who e-mail and text message very frequently. The problem with the touch screen is that it doesn't provide tactile feedback, according to Forrester, which makes it difficult to type without paying attention to every single key you hit. The faster you can type, the faster your messages get sent out and the more work you can do in a shorter amount of time. That's not necessarily the case with the iPhone.
6) The iPhone Has Limited Carrier Support Outside the United States, It's Locked Into CarriersThis one is semantic games. First, you can indeed roam with the iPhone. People do it all the time. It ain't cheap sometimes, but they can do it. In fact, I can get a (not free) international roaming option for my iPhone via AT&T. Again, it's not cheap, but that's not the same as you can't do it. As well, "Limited carrier support"? Oy.The iPhone is currently only available through exclusive carriers in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, and it's locked to those specific carriers. That means business users who travel internationally can't use iPhones via the carriers they have contracts with in any other countries, even if those carriers offer networks that are technologically compatible, according to Forrester.
7) The iPhone is (Very) ExpensiveOh for pete's sake, it is not. The big problem here is that you don't get any discounts. However, if you want an unlocked Treo or Blackberry, so you can more easily use it with other services, which is evidently quite important to Forrester as they point out in item 6), well, then the price changes a bit. Sans contract and rebate, a Tre0 750 costs more than an iPhone costs, as does the Pantech Duo, the Moto Q, the BlackBerry Curve 8310, the Blackberry 8820, the Treo 680, and the AT&T Tilt. Actually, even with the contract and the discount, the Tilt's only a hundred bucks cheaper than the iPhone.The iPhone sells for double what the average BlackBerry or Treo costs. At $400, plus voice and data charges, Apple's smartphone is one of the priciest such devices on the market, even after a $200 price cut last fall. Corporations seeking mobile devices often consider price a selling point, especially since many device makers or carriers offer business discounts and service plans. Apple and AT&T, the exclusive U.S. carrier, don't offer any such discounts for business use.
But the worst part about this point is they bury the closest they come biggest reason why businesses should stay away from the iPhone for now in the last sentence of this "point":
Apple and AT&T, the exclusive U.S. carrier, don't offer any such discounts for business use.They don't offer discounts, because you can't get an iPhone on a business plan, period. If I had to guess, there's exactly one company with an iPhone business plan, and they make the silly thing. Maybe AT&T has one too, but other than that, they're personal use contracts only. They are not being sold in a way that makes sense for businesses. The best point of all, and Forrester blows it, just whiffs it. That's what happens when you value hitcounts over accuracy, you miss the valid points.
8) The iPhone Is a First-Generation DeviceOkay, Forrester's just cheating here, they bury 4 points in this one, but then again, they're all weak. As well, one point is something they bitch about later on, so that's even more of a cheat. But anyway. First, all phones can be difficult to activate quickly. I've had phones that took a long time to activate, I've had phones that took minutes. Windows Mobile , Palm, there's no guarantee that the process will work quickly 100% of the time. The same applies to the iPhone. This one's just stupid. Secondly, battery life on the iPhone is not significantly worse than any other phone, and better, by far, than the darling of the Windows Mobile set, the Q. The Q, at least the original release had a batter that could barely get through the day when it was doing nothing at all. In contrast, I can easily get through two days of normal use with my iPhone without a charge. If I can do that, I'm set. I'm not off wandering in the woods. I don't need a week without a charge. Third, the volume is indeed less than impressive, but the sound quality is quite nice. People have no problems understanding what I say when I talk on it. The last bullet is a scream. "aren't as fast as they could be?" Well, for that matter, neither are 3G speeds. That whole nastiness of the real world means you rarely hit theoretical max. Stop shucking for hits man, that's lame.No mobile device is perfect when it's initially released. In order for handset makers to refine their products, they often rely on their masses of users to highlight their weaknesses. Some of the iPhone's weaknesses are, according to Forrester:
The next iteration of the iPhone will likely address these issues. In fact, AT&T's CEO recently said a 3G iPhone is due in 2008.
- it can be difficult to activate quickly
- battery life is weak/short
- sound quality is less than impressive
- it's currently only a 2.5 generation device, which means that data transfer speeds aren't as fast as they could be
9) Apple Doesn't Offer Replacement Batteries for the iPhoneThat's because Apple doesn't do like far too many smartphone manufacturers, and ship the iPhone with a crap battery that can barely get through a day of normal use, (PPC-6601, XV-6700), or not even that good, (Moto Q) without a spare battery. If more manufacturers didn't ship with batteries that suck, this wouldn't be a problem. I'm amazed at how people are so Stockholmed by smartphone batteries that they now view a workaround to bad engineering as a plus.Apple doesn't currently offer battery replacements for the iPhone, so users cannot carry backups to ensure that they never lose power. Forrester says that third-party vendors will likely begin to offer replacements in the near future, but because the device needs to be disassembled in order to remove a battery and insert another, the replacement process may not be simple enough for less tech-savvy users.
10) There's No Proof That iPhones Are Suitable Business DevicesFirst of all, stop relying on other people, like oh, Forrester Research to do your damned thinking for you, and secondly, based on what enterprise companies like SAP and Intel are saying, Forrester appears to be full of shit on this one.The only large enterprise that is known to fully support iPhones is--surprise, surprise--Apple, according to Forrester. And it hasn't published any case studies or other support materials. Enterprises often make mobile device purchasing decisions based on the experience of their peers or industry analysts' recommendations, but with such information lacking about the iPhone, Forrester says it won't likely be making its way into many businesses anytime soon.
Look, if you're going to let anyone's "Top Ten List" make your IT decisions for you, you have far greater problems than an iPhone. Analyze your real needs, then use that analysis to guide you. Six clowns wasted on moonshine could have come up with a better list of reasons for not supporting the iPhone in the workplace than this crap.
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Posted by John C. Welch at 11:15 | Permalink
Comments
I had to stop reading when you cited SAP and Intel. SAP makes a living selling c..p to corporate idiots. Even mentioning them in the same article is a disserver to the fine engineers who designed the iPhone. ( caveat.. I once saw a nice SAP implementation, that companies IT department was run by a genius who went to the catbert school of management.. He told the SAP field-engineers to go to h..l and re-wrote most of the front end from scratch).
Posted by: MK | December 15, 2007 9:47 PM
The quality of SAP's software is immaterial to the main point, which is that enterprise companies see some value in the iPhone.
Posted by: John C. Welch | December 15, 2007 11:28 PM
John your attitude conveyed in this article is unfortunate. Try to use less blaming, less cursing and a rather more freindly style.
Posted by: missti | December 19, 2007 6:51 AM
missti:
No.
Posted by: John C. Welch | December 19, 2007 1:15 PM
