Quote:
Originally Posted by i.masterem
That has been my sense as well...I think many people see the touch screen and forget that Apple is really a consumer-targeted company at heart.
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I used to agree with your position. After so many disappointments with the Blackberry, I no longer agree.
The iPhone coupled with a Mac is proving to be quite robust for business needs. It's handicap at the moment is Exchange services. Perhaps in a few weeks, that will be addressed with WWDC or whenever Apple announces the 3G device. The touch screen is really the only part of the iPhone that I don't get all excited about. It works as well for me as the tiny keys on a BB -- just differently. The iPhone really shines with its webbrowser. I deal with a lot of different authentication schemes in websites I have to use, and I have to use a combination of three browsers on a BB: the built-in RIMjob, Opera 3 and Opera 4. And it remains a pain in the tuckus to use any of them. The iPhone excels in web browsing.
I use non BES/BIS email systems that aren't supported by the BB. Apple's Mail has no issues with POP accounts. If it wasn't for Missing Sync picking up the slack where RIM just can't 'get it', I would have auctioned off this BB weeks ago due to lackluster calendaring support (my personal office doesn't use an exchange server -- we have iCal tied into our group management sw -- and only M/S has allowed me to keep most of my calendar sanity. The iPhone works with our iCal solution very well.
We're moving away from proprietary nonsense (now up to date, meeting maker, etc.) and will no longer consider most of these per-seat solutions for business communications. We seek either open-source that we can manage without additional overhead, or site-license without a ceiling or expiration date. IT departments have wagged the dog and made expensive lousy choices in the past, and most of my customers are getting fed up with this model.
I'd love to see RIM get proactive and tackle some of these real-world needs, rather than sit on their one-way paradigm. Opening up to POP email the same way they opened up to wifi with their recent products. This kind of flexibility will keep them as a front-runner for business tools. But don't discount the iPhone. At one year old, it is growing up fast and it is reaching beyond the enterprise. Only job-security-paranoid IT staff will recommend against it for their own personal interest -- assuming Apple fills in the gaps of their product (which are equally frustrating: 3G, GPS, call recording, video capture, replaceable battery pack, upgradeable SD card slot, etc). The planned obsolescence of these devices is worrisome, but the ability to employ them in the work enterprise is barely below the BB standard.
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