Every now then I get to play the “I told you so” card. Mind you, it’s not often but I said many weeks ago that the iPhone would be ready for business users. Sure, there may be some shortcomings like broad support for push email from corporate servers, office document support and the like but the ability to carry PIM and other data as well as its value for multimedia presentations on the road especially if it includes decent video-out capability like the iPod, can’t be underestimated.
So, now we hear this (from Macworld)
Cingular, which was acquired by AT&T, recently decided that the iPhone will appeal to business users and the operator is now working hard to ensure that its backend enterprise billing and support systems will accommodate the device when it ships, said a source familiar with the company’s plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The real surprise is that it took AT&T so long to realise this. Surely a device that can access the internet, get email, sync PIM data and be your cellphone has “business” stamped all over it. Also, when you consider that the US phone market is one of the most closed and locked in cellphone markets on the planet, it makes sense to broaden the device’s customer base as much as possible.
One thing that may put corporate buyers off is the lack of application development options for the iPhone. Apple has said that the iPhone will be a closed platform but I don’t think that’s a long-term strategy. If you look at the recently released Apple TV, it’s a clsoed system but the hacking community has been hard at it and added plenty of new codec support for the device. Given that the iPhone is running a version of OS X I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same thing done to the iPhone. I suspect we’ll see VPN and other comms tools come pretty quickly as well as support for other applications such as office applications (Open Office and Neo Office for the iPhone spring to mind).
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i think having the iphone be a closed system is a great idea. I don’t want my iphone freezing and sporadically restarting when I’m trying to make a call or listening to some tunes. By controlling the apps that make their way onto the iphone, Apple is ensuring that their baby remains secure and works as it’s supposed to.
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