Although the media and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) have pushed the iPhone as a consumer device, apparently some business users are finding out that they like it too. Staunch business customers who are tech-savvy, complain about the lack of email flexibility that the iPhone provides, citing Microsoft Exchange and RIM BlackBerry Server functionality being absent. To some business customers who need mobility in the first place, though, the device is still easier to use than a Windows Mobile device or a BlackBerry.SAP, the German computer software giant, allows the use the iPhone for business, even letting employees to work on their iPhones outside the office. Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) is another company that sees the usefulness of the combination iPod/cellphone as a business tool, regardless of how it's always been marketed -- as a consumer device. So, the large question is this: could Apple's iPhone eat into the huge portable email and web browsing market share Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) now has with its BlackBerry device line?
When a senior executive from SAP states that "It's fun ... it's so popular," one has to wonder if teenage peer-pressure vernacular and groupthink carries over from Apple's marketing overlords into the business world. After all, Apple is more successful at marketing than anything -- and that's what's responsible for its huge success in recent years. Business users, however, demand logic and ROI, not marketing fluff. The iPhone is the real deal, combining both functionality and marketing. With a real web browser and forthcoming applications, it could indeed become a business tool of choice. Once the iPhone becomes compatible with RIM or Microsoft corporate email systems, watch for sales to become even hotter. Don't think Apple doesn't have this functionality waiting in the wings once a 3G iPhone arrives next year.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-07-2007 @ 1:25PM
Gr33ngurl said...
I think business folk just want to be cool and pull up YouTube vids on the go. How can anyone who is moving any serious level of units find the touch screen and email searching anything but inhibiting to the pace of bizness. Just saying...
12-07-2007 @ 2:06PM
Charlie V said...
Agree. The iPhone is a wonder, but not for real business use. The interface is not right for serious emailing and text messaging, and seeing web pages in safari vs. anything else is slow and too small. 3G is not going to fix too small. Notice that in iPhone ads, the webpage always has a picture you can see, and text that you can't (until you further manipulate the screen)? Notice how many steps it takes to make a phone call or send a text message? Unfortunately, the soothing Apple iPhone music is not playing when you try to make a call. Ditto for Windows Mobile devices--so many steps to do anything! When I want to get on the internet for anything more than checking movie listings, directions, a phone number, or the weather, I use a notebook or desktop computer, as do most business users. (Face it, we are generally older or our eyes are otherwise ruined and can't see tiny screens. Yippee skippee to those firms with generally yong, hip workforces. I think they are all in New York, Los Angeles, and Cupertino). The iPhone is just...neato. And, like a crow craving that shiney buckle, I want one but don't know what I would do with it, even after I played with one. I have resisted (and, in fact, bought a Blackberry AFTER the iPhone launch) and will continue to do so. Now, if Blackberry comes out with the rumored touchscreen phone (with all of its mature, business-oriented software) I will be paying CLOSE attention and may eat my words.
iPhones are for kids, moms, Apple geeks (and I mean "geek" in the kindest way, truly) and rich folk who really just want the coolest looking phone, whatever it is... oh, and crows who crave shiney things.
12-07-2007 @ 3:32PM
Chris Tutor said...
You naysayers have apparently not spent much more than a few minutes with an iPhone. After six months with mine, I can't think of not having it. And, no, I do not use mine to "pull up YouTube vids on the go." I check my email. Manage a Web site. Compose text documents. Order products. Keep tabs on business associates and, basically do everything I can do on my desktop.
And, Brian White, Apple is very good at marketing, but its job is made MUCH easier by the fact it has very good products to market. We Apple "geeks" have known this for years. Apple's recent booming success is evidence everyone else is starting to realize the same thing.
And what do you mean by "with a real Web browser"? What do you think Safari is?
12-07-2007 @ 4:10PM
Bryan said...
"Notice how many steps it takes to make a phone call or send a text message?"
1 press, 3 taps.
12-07-2007 @ 10:44PM
sferris said...
I don't own iPhone, but my wife does. It's the best interface I've seen on any hand-held device. As a programmer and I can't wait till Apple delivers an SDK. Programmers are chomping at the bit to write apps for it. It's only going to get better. And it's not something you can say about any other phone you can buy.
12-09-2007 @ 10:53AM
Brian said...
The question you have to ask yourself is, why is everyone so POLARIZED about Apple?
Could it be that BOTH sides (Mac fanboys and PC TechnoGeeks) know that Apple invented it all and that, until recently, was able to HIDE that from the average person, who really could care less about computers?
Good riddance to Microsoft "Outbreak"! Who would want that MESS on their iPhone?
12-09-2007 @ 11:23AM
Neil Anderson said...
Safari iPhone browser share is getting attention already.
12-09-2007 @ 11:08PM
lrd said...
I own an iPhone and I can tell you that if RIMM & MS don't come up with a reply pretty soon; their only customers will be the enterprise.
Let's face it. RIMM is in a whole lot of trouble. It's management is down playing the whole thing; but it's only about 3 to 4 countries away that we'll see the iPhone start showing its effect on RIMM's bottom line.
Actually with the iPhone's launch in Europe last month, I think RIMM is already seeing the handwriting on wall- let's wait til this quarter results and don't be surprised if you see RIMM's stock take a dive. I'm telling you, it's either this quarter or next that RIMM will start it's inevitable slide.
They'll need to pull a DOS to Windows miracle to prove me wrong.