Apple Faces Challenges In Driving iPhone Adoption By Business

The iPhone potential to become the leading business handset is constrained by enterprises allowing employees to choose the carrier with the best network coverage for their work.

When a company allows the employee to select his/her phone from an approved list supported by a Service Provider, then having the cool iPhone to flash at  a meeting will be a big factor in the purchase decision. BUT only if that phone can support the key business functions of push email (MS Exchange and Lotus Notes), push calendar, and attachment viewing. AND only if the service provider...

Form follows function.  Stylish and with some neat features, but best tool for the job?  Not sure.

Apple is a master at creating killer products for the CONSUMER space (via both technology and marketing), but has never produced one for the COMMERCIAL market. RIM is a smart and agile player in their space who got to the top by being so, while fending off larger players again and again and again. Apple will not find them sleeping at the wheel. The purchasing decisions for COMMERCIAL devices...

The iPhone will cross seamlessly from personal to business use. Microsoft will develop for it and at that point, the best-designed handset with the best software combination will be able to win.

If iPhone had not decided to support the Microsoft Exchange platform, I would say that the iPhone would have been very big with the creative community.

Apple created an exquisite tool in the iPhone. Innovative integration of software and hardware provides new standards in user experience and usability. All this with tools that are barely adequate for personal users, and vastly inadequate for business users.  The iPhone is already an over-ripe fruit, that still does not yet have "the right stuff".

Most IT organizations supporting the Blackberry Enterprise Server recognize serious flaws in the architecture. ActiveSync can easily be supported by organizations running Exchange Server, providing greater control, security, and reliability. In six months time, iPhone's sales exceeded 1 million units through limited distribution. The iPhone had a hand in driving a significant increase in wireless...

Security issues + poor keyboard form factor + lack of Exchange 2003 compatibility + high cost all equate to lack of adoption by businesses as RIM replacement.

Blackberry relies on J2ME for applications.  J2ME is flawed in terms of performance and reliability.  The primitive development environment for Blackberry places a greater burden on developers.  Apple's iPhone SDK is superior in terms of performance and programming productivity.  Vertical application developers will flock to the iPhone because of this and because of the...

The RIM versus Apple battle is the current smartphone battlefield (unless Nokia can enter the fray), with Microsoft and Palm bowing out due to an inability to innovate and deliver products that capitalize on the shifting pro-sumer or business / consumer market.  Now that Apple is making a move into an enterprise-level product, pro-sumers will now have an opportunity to carry only one product...

Beyond employee preferences, the Apple iPhone business upgrades will test how business managers and IT professionals can agree on mobile devices in standardization, management, and costs. 

It is only a matter of time, measured in months now, for the Apple Iphone to start treading on Blackberry's Turf.  There are many compelling reasons why this will be inevitable

Apple iPhone which shook the cellular world standards of the consumers will do it in business as well. Apple unique way to do the same but differently and achieve more public relations than all its rivals together will show its benefits in the business arena as well. Many employees will push their IT managers or office infrastructure managers to go for the iPOD rather than regular cellphone or even...

The iPhone has such a wide following among consumers, many of whom hold influential positions in enterprises, that some penetration into enterprises will happen quickly.  Once that early stage is past, however, future growth promises to be more difficult.  RIM is a formidable competitor!