AT&T: 40 percent of iPhones sold to enterprise users
Ron Spears, AT&T's chief executive of its Business Solutions unit, told a conference audience this week that 40 percent of iPhones were being sold to business users and that the enterprise is viewing the device as secure, powerful, and even as a potential replacement for laptop purchases.
Spears was speaking at the Barclays Capital Communications, Media and Technology conference, according to a report by Larry Dignan of ZDNet.
When asked about the iPhone's role in enterprise markets, Spears said, "Four out of 10 sales of the iPhone are made to enterprise users. When the iPhone came out, what most people heard in the first year from ?07 to ?08 was oh my God, it?s not BlackBerry secure. This is not going to work on the enterprise space.
"At the end of the day," Spears said, "it?s just software. That?s all it is. And by the time the 3G came out in ?08 they had solved about 80% of the security issues. By the time the 3GS came out last summer, most CIOs will tell you today they have very few issues around the security that they need provided as they have come to know that RIM can do it because of the way RIM provides their solution.
"So enterprises today view the iPhone as a mobile computer. It happens to have a voice application on it. But what?s important is what you can do with it, and the way you can mobilize workforces, and specific parts of your workforce, not the entire workforce."
Spears also described how the iPhone has changed business within AT&T itself, saying "Most of our monthly reporting is all built into an app that gets updated when our systems get updated, and we do an automatic fetch. And any time I want to look at where we sort of sit from a financial point of view in ABS, it now resides on my iPhone as an app. So it starts to change the way you think about governing your business. It changes the speed with which you can make decisions."
Spears added that there are also a variety of situations where employees are being given iPhones, and increasingly iPads, in place of assigning them a laptop. ?If they?ve got a field service force that needs one or two applications on a daily basis; do they need to go out and spend $1,000 or $1,200 for a laptop and then worry about sort of the lifecycle costs of keeping up with the laptop?? Spears rhetorically asked.
Apple vs other mobile platforms in the enterprise
Contrasting the visibility of Android in business, Spears said, "I haven?t seen the Android platform yet in the enterprise space. Not to say it won?t come, but pretty much that platform has been built with a very specific focus to consumers. Over time, my guess is there will be an evolution that?s kind of hard to ignore the enterprise space."
Google's focus on consumers is evident in macho marketing that accompanied the Verizon Droid, and the consumer-oriented pitch for Google's own Nexus One, which paired up with T-Mobile. Google's Android handsets also do not support the minimum security standards required by most businesses using Exchange Server, nor have any support for RIM-style push messaging popularized by the BlackBerry.
Apple has made its push to the Enterprise a major part of its strategy, introducing Exchange support, push messaging, corporate VPN and related security efforts back at the release of iPhone 2.0, which were all expanded and enhanced last year. iPhone OS 4 will seek to further expand Apple's placement in the market for mobile business devices, even as RIM pushes BlackBerry OS 6.0 toward consumers and Microsoft launches Windows Phone 7 in a decisive new direction that abandons its business-oriented Windows Mobile 6.x in favor of promoting a Zune-oriented XNA mobile gaming platform.
Spears was speaking at the Barclays Capital Communications, Media and Technology conference, according to a report by Larry Dignan of ZDNet.
When asked about the iPhone's role in enterprise markets, Spears said, "Four out of 10 sales of the iPhone are made to enterprise users. When the iPhone came out, what most people heard in the first year from ?07 to ?08 was oh my God, it?s not BlackBerry secure. This is not going to work on the enterprise space.
"At the end of the day," Spears said, "it?s just software. That?s all it is. And by the time the 3G came out in ?08 they had solved about 80% of the security issues. By the time the 3GS came out last summer, most CIOs will tell you today they have very few issues around the security that they need provided as they have come to know that RIM can do it because of the way RIM provides their solution.
"So enterprises today view the iPhone as a mobile computer. It happens to have a voice application on it. But what?s important is what you can do with it, and the way you can mobilize workforces, and specific parts of your workforce, not the entire workforce."
Spears also described how the iPhone has changed business within AT&T itself, saying "Most of our monthly reporting is all built into an app that gets updated when our systems get updated, and we do an automatic fetch. And any time I want to look at where we sort of sit from a financial point of view in ABS, it now resides on my iPhone as an app. So it starts to change the way you think about governing your business. It changes the speed with which you can make decisions."
Spears added that there are also a variety of situations where employees are being given iPhones, and increasingly iPads, in place of assigning them a laptop. ?If they?ve got a field service force that needs one or two applications on a daily basis; do they need to go out and spend $1,000 or $1,200 for a laptop and then worry about sort of the lifecycle costs of keeping up with the laptop?? Spears rhetorically asked.
Apple vs other mobile platforms in the enterprise
Contrasting the visibility of Android in business, Spears said, "I haven?t seen the Android platform yet in the enterprise space. Not to say it won?t come, but pretty much that platform has been built with a very specific focus to consumers. Over time, my guess is there will be an evolution that?s kind of hard to ignore the enterprise space."
Google's focus on consumers is evident in macho marketing that accompanied the Verizon Droid, and the consumer-oriented pitch for Google's own Nexus One, which paired up with T-Mobile. Google's Android handsets also do not support the minimum security standards required by most businesses using Exchange Server, nor have any support for RIM-style push messaging popularized by the BlackBerry.
Apple has made its push to the Enterprise a major part of its strategy, introducing Exchange support, push messaging, corporate VPN and related security efforts back at the release of iPhone 2.0, which were all expanded and enhanced last year. iPhone OS 4 will seek to further expand Apple's placement in the market for mobile business devices, even as RIM pushes BlackBerry OS 6.0 toward consumers and Microsoft launches Windows Phone 7 in a decisive new direction that abandons its business-oriented Windows Mobile 6.x in favor of promoting a Zune-oriented XNA mobile gaming platform.
Comments
I bought it directly myself without corporate reimbursement so I doubt very much the statistics include me as a business user - unless they are somehow tracking the number of users that connect to exchange servers or something.
at least 10 of my coworkers (that I am aware of and likely many more in my company that I am not aware of) are in a similar situation - bought, won, were gifted, or cajoled by their kids to get an iPhone and use it to connect to the corporate email system and conduct business.
In fact - I am not sure if I know anyone who has an iPhone and does not use it for business emails and phone calls. and I am just talking about making an occasional call to or from work - but using it as a business contact number on your business card.
Now - there are very likely people I know or relatives who have iPhones who do not use them for work - just saying if that is the case then I am not aware of it.
in place of assigning them a laptop. ?If they?ve got a field service force that needs one or two applications on a daily basis; do they need to go out and spend $1,000 or $1,200 for a laptop and then worry about sort of the lifecycle costs of keeping up with the laptop??
Android may have a tough time selling to corporate with their "everything open" philosophy. I think Apple will best RiM in unit sales in the next few quarters if the Storm 3 isn't a breakaway device. Third time's the charm, right?
I personally don't think RIM is going anywhere. I have had the iPhone since the first day it came out and love it, but there are people, my father included, who love the iPhone OS but cannot give up that physical keyboard.
At this point, there is not much of an advantage with e-mail or messaging on the Blackberry (other than BBM, which is only BB-to-BB), but that physical keyboard is the ONE feature most blackberry users cannot live without.
Therefore, I don't think the Storm 3, no matter how good it is, will ever be a runaway success, since the Blackberry crowd couldn't care less about a touchscreen phone, and if they do want one, they will most likely get an iPhone or an Android phone if they can't/don't want to have AT&T.
I personally don't think RIM is going anywhere. I have had the iPhone since the first day it came out and love it, but there are people, my father included, who love the iPhone OS but cannot give up that physical keyboard.
At this point, there is not much of an advantage with e-mail or messaging on the Blackberry (other than BBM, which is only BB-to-BB), but that physical keyboard is the ONE feature most blackberry users cannot live without.
Therefore, I don't think the Storm 3, no matter how good it is, will ever be a runaway success, since the Blackberry crowd couldn't care less about a touchscreen phone, and if they do want one, they will most likely get an iPhone or an Android phone if they can't/don't want to have AT&T.
I personally don't think RIM is going anywhere.
RiM isn't going anywhere, but I do think they will be bested in unit sales unless they can find away to increase their growth once again. I think the lowering of per unit price is pretty much played out. That was never meant to achieve sustained growth. They'll still dominate the Enterprise but overall I think we'll see some plateauing that will scare investors.
Push email. That's a big deal.
Are you saying that the iPhone can't get email pushed to it, only the BB can?
iPhones were being sold to business users and that the enterprise is viewing the device as secure, powerful, and even as a potential replacement for laptop purchases.
The iPhone is far from secure.
Apple is always playing catch up, not ahead in security.
Perhaps 4.0 will fix these new issues. And 5.0 to fix the new ones and so on.
http://cryptopath.wordpress.com/2010/01/
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/p...-hijacked/5836
The iPhone is far from secure.
Apple is always playing catch up, not ahead in security.
Perhaps 4.0 will fix these new issues. And 5.0 to fix the new ones and so on.
http://cryptopath.wordpress.com/2010/01/
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/p...-hijacked/5836
While I'm usually quick to point out 'secure' is a vastly relative term, that first link was very interesting.
The iPhone is far from secure.
Apple is always playing catch up, not ahead in security.
Perhaps 4.0 will fix these new issues. And 5.0 to fix the new ones and so on ...
You're just spinning it hard here.
The iPhone is not 100% secure, but that's quite a different thing than "the iPhone is far from secure."
The article quotes Spears as saying the 3Gs is currently about 80% of the way to full security. On the other hand your "far from secure" kind implies a number below 50%. This is obviously not the case. A more accurate description of the 80% number would be "very secure," "really quite secure," or "highly secure."
As you imply yourself, security holes are endless and anyone involved in security knows the job is never done, but Apple seems to be doing an excellent job so far.
Android may have a tough time selling to corporate with their "everything open" philosophy. I think Apple will best RiM in unit sales in the next few quarters if the Storm 3 isn't a breakaway device. Third time's the charm, right?
Exactly. Android-fanboys will be simmering over this story. Android is quickly becoming the Windows/PC paradigm. Corporations have enough trouble maintaining Windows PC's due to trojans, malware, and rogue-apps. Apply that to the open-nature of Android and the iPhone's walled-garden starts to look much better.
The iPhone is far from secure.
Apple is always playing catch up, not ahead in security.
Perhaps 4.0 will fix these new issues. And 5.0 to fix the new ones and so on.
http://cryptopath.wordpress.com/2010/01/
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/p...-hijacked/5836
Nice spin. No device whatsoever will ever truly achieve 100% security. For anyone to imply it is (even Apple) would be an insult to users.
However, I believe an iPhone would have no problem being classified as "more secure" versus an Android phone. While it is possible in theory for a rogue-app to be placed on Apple's App Store, it is almost a give that there will be plenty to choose from in Android's Marketplace and you very well know that.
What Apple codes is rather insecure, Safari?, they import a lot of their security from people smarter and/or more adept than they are.
http://www.trustedbsd.org/mac.html
The iPhone is far from secure as long as vulnerabilities continue to be found, when it stops for several years, despite the best efforts of hackers, then the device is considered secure.
What Apple codes is rather insecure, Safari?, they import a lot of their security from people smarter and/or more adept than they are....
This is a lot of gibberish. By this measure, nothing is secure including enterprise level software, so you are undercutting your own argument.
Also, every post you make has some kind of bitter jab at Apple in it, so it's plain to me that you have an agenda of some kind.
Push email. That's a big deal.
I wasn't aware the iPhone couldn't do push e-mail. I guess my MobileMe subscription, or the ability for Exchange, Gmail (through Exchange), Yahoo, etc. to instantly send e-mails, contacts, calendar updates, and pretty soon notes are not considered push.
I bought my primarily for enterprise use - in fact if I did not use it for work I likely would not have a smartphone at all. Sure I use it for personal use as well - but primarily a business tool for me. No where near capable of replacing a notebook for what I do - though it does dramatically reduce the amount of time I need to spend on the notebook while in transit to keep up to date with emails and reduce the workload I have to deal with when I get to where pulling out the notebook makes sense.
I bought it directly myself without corporate reimbursement so I doubt very much the statistics include me as a business user - unless they are somehow tracking the number of users that connect to exchange servers or something.
at least 10 of my coworkers (that I am aware of and likely many more in my company that I am not aware of) are in a similar situation - bought, won, were gifted, or cajoled by their kids to get an iPhone and use it to connect to the corporate email system and conduct business.
In fact - I am not sure if I know anyone who has an iPhone and does not use it for business emails and phone calls. and I am just talking about making an occasional call to or from work - but using it as a business contact number on your business card.
...
I'd have to agree that the business use is under-reported if it is based solely off corporate account tracking via the telcos. From my experience during the late 1st gen, 3G and early 3GS era, a number of co-workers bought their own iPhone, ignored the corporate policies at the time, called in favors from some friend in IT and got themselves set up.
I suppose we could call this the "shadow business use". It may not be huge, but I'll bet it is statistically apparent.