Why IT shouldn’t ignore the iPhone

There’s been a lot of talk about why enterprises shouldn’t adopt the iPhone. But Keith Shaw of NetworkWorld.com explains why IT shouldn’t ignore the first generation of Apple’s mobile phone.

Keith Shaw is right on the money here - the iPhone is a potentially revolutionary device for the Enterprise…

(Via Macworld.com)

There’s been a lot written about the iPhone and the reasons why enterprises should not fully adopt this first-generation device for use by employees. Whether it’s the wireless network, lack of strong VPN support, or lack of direct Exchange connections for e-mail, there’s enough evidence (in Network World and on the Web) for you to cite when an executive comes to your office asking for IT iPhone support.

But you shouldn’t totally ignore the iPhone, either. There are several good reasons why you should at least pay attention to the device, if for no other reason than to prepare for the eventual second- or third-generation iPhone that will support a 3G network, have Exchange hooks and stronger security. You might want to even buy a few devices for your department to see what the fuss is about.

So what’s good about the iPhone?

• Web browsing on a mobile device that works: Remember all of the “WAP is crap” headlines from years ago? The iPhone fixes this problem, and raises the bar on Web browsing. The Web looks like the Web, and the very cool zoom-in and zoom-out feature makes the small text on the screen problem go away.

• Seamless network connections between a WLAN and WAN: When you’re in an area where the WAN and Wi-Fi are good, the iPhone does a great job seamlessly connecting you to the best area (one assumes the device picks the Wi-Fi connection over the EDGE connection).

• Improved phone call features: I don’t even know if I have three-way conferencing on my existing phone, much less the combination of menu choices and buttons to push to create such a call. With the iPhone, it’s a matter of calling someone, pushing the conference button (putting caller 1 on hold), dialing the second number, and hitting the “merge” button.

• The realization of work/life convergence: For years, I’ve seen mobile devices that want to be taken as a “serious business device”. But Apple understands that users want one device for their life—not just their home life, but for their work life too. We used to think convergence was about merging a cell phone with a PDA, but now the word convergence should make you question whether a device can address a user’s work applications and personal applications (if they’re even different anyway). The iPhone currently understands this convergence better than other devices.

See original article by Keith Shaw.