I whole heartely disagree with this analyst for several reasons for Enterprise use.
While the enterprise can use the iPhone, several limitations create issues for securing and locking down such devices:
*I cannot encrypt the iPhone end to end (currently). I can password protect some stuff, that's about it. Blackberry Enterprise Server allows me to encrypt the phones and completely control their environment. Exchange ActiveSync alone doesn't allow me to do this. I still can use third party tools with WM to lock down the device or provide encryption.
*I completely cannot control the user environment. I cannot prevent users from installing crap onto their iPhones. You don't want users installing crap onto their phones when the phones are company property. This is just not good best practices to do that.
*Remote Wipe and full sync capability requires Exchange Server 2007 SP1 or small business server 2008 w/ Exchange SP1. MANY companies run on on Exchange 2003 SP2. Upgrading an enterprise from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 is no easy task and is quite expensive. We currently run on SBS 2003 w/ Exchange SP2. Works very well for push calender, contacts, e-mail using WM phones. We have 4 WM phones and 1 Blackberry. Eventually we will move to SBS 2008 when Blackberry Professional becomes completely compatible with Exchange 2007 and SQL Server 2008 (Blackberry Pro is a limited edition or BES that doesn't provide full encryption and doesn't allow more than 31 users). The main issue with upgrading from Exchange 2003 to 2007 is that Exchange 2007 REQUIRES the 64 bit version of Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008, because Exchange 2007 is 64 bit only. This is actually really necessary now because large Exchange databases with hundreds or thousands of users need allot more than 4GB of total ram. If you have the 32 bit version of Exchange 2003 and wish to move to the 64 version then you have a major upgrade hurdle; this is especially true if you are running Small Business Server 2003.
iPhone ActiveSYNC will work on Exchange 2003, but with far less functionality than compared to a WM phone or a Blackberry.
*mixed environments may provide an issue; say you have 3 iPhones and 4 Blackberrys. You cannot use Blackberry Professional because it doesn't completely support Exchange 2007 SP1, which is required for the iPhone full functionality. You must then upgrade (currently) to BES, which is a hella allot more expensive than Blackberry Professional.
*Apple still doesn't have an end to end solution to run push e-mail, calendar, contacts, tasks, notes etc using OSX Server. Supposedly they are working on a solution.
*I cannot insure a phone. As a company accountant with hundreds of employees I would be pretty pissed if our company had to shell out hundreds of dollars for new phones if the things just stopped working out of warranty, was lost or stolen. This policy of AT&T and Apple is stupid and limits iPhone sales tremendously. They're too afraid of Jailbreaking.
* The battery is soldered (Original) and/or hard (iphone 2nd generation) to replace. Having a user have to wait several days for a new phone, that cannot be insured from AT&T btw, is unacceptable. Apple's answer to the battery issue is to pay around $100, wait 2 weeks and pay a fee to "borrow" a phone. This is not acceptable because not every area has an Apple store. I'm not going to have an end user attempt to replace their battery themselves from an aftermarket kit. If I have an HTC WM phone or a Blackberry I can have the user stop by a specialty store, a Best Buy, Verzon store or worse comes to worse I can have a battery overnighted to them. The non-user replaceable battery is the dumbest thing to have on a cell phone. ONLY APPLE DOES THIS to frustrate users into buying a new phone or to extract large profit margins from battery replacements or to create "clean lines".
*The plans suck. That may be just my opinion, but let's take a look at it from the Bean Counter (accountant's) perspective. For $99 a month I get 900 minutes, the required data plan and 200 text messages. AT&T corporate probably does provide a volume discount, but this information is not disclosed on AT&T's site. For $99 a month I get Sprint unlimited everything, including Exchange ActiveSYNC. I can run hundreds of HTC WM phones for far cheaper per month than AT&T and I don't have to worry about users overaging their cell phone accounts (for heavy users). If we are talking about many white collar workers, they will probably need heavy access to data, voice and (maybe) text messaging services.
Unlimited on the iPhone is $150 a month before taxes (text, minutes, data).
for less usage Sprint has AT&T beat hands down too. $59.99 a month for light users @ 450 minutes a month with data, text, picture mail etc etc
*AT&T sucks or isn't well liked. This is opinion, but their are many iPhone users who complain about AT&T's network speed and availability. Not saying that Sprint or Verizon are great either, but they're more established networks. Sprints EVDO revision A kicks the crap out of HSPDA 3G used on GSM networks.
These issues, with at least the battery, insurance for the phones and encryption/lockdown need to be solved before widespread adoption is done. Remember we are talking about corporate data usage; corporations don't care or need to run to the iPhone so that their users can download some app to read the ski reports.