Rumor: iPhone for corporate accounts coming soon

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in iPhone edited January 2014
Wireless carrier AT&T will soon allow Apple iPhones to be registered under corporate and business accounts, according to claims made by one technology blog site.



Citing unidentified sources, BGR says an announcement is on tap for next week Monday, January 21st, which is somewhat odd given the date is a federal holiday.



Nevertheless, the report claims that those individuals with corporate and business accounts will be able to use their discounts on iPhone service plans at this time. There are, however, some reported limitations.



For one, discounts won't be available on the iPhone hardware itself and corporate and business iPhone users may be required to sign up for a monthly data plan of $25 or more, which is slightly more than the flat-rate $20 fee currently charged by Apple and AT&T for individual account holders.



In addition, the rumor states that corporate and business users will also have to complete a pre-activation process ahead of -- and in addition to -- the standard iTunes activation process.



If true, the move would undoubtedly dismember yet another barrier to adoption of the touch-screen handsets by big businesses and its employees, leaving security and a lack of Microsoft Exchange support as two of the primary remaining deterrents.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 19
    crebcreb Posts: 276member
    Now here is something that will actually increase sales, and Apple's stock value. My son works for AT&T and he cannot wait for this move to happen as it is a major complaint among business users.
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  • Reply 2 of 19
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    I think it will happen, but I don't think it will happen next Monday.
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  • Reply 3 of 19
    What "security" problem?? You mean VPN capability? You mean WPA2 support? You mean 4 digit PIN when turning on? Where's the problem...
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  • Reply 4 of 19
    Strange timing, with earnings scheduled for Tuesday...
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  • Reply 5 of 19
    $5. more for what? Just reinstate the "business" discount .
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  • Reply 6 of 19
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by CREB View Post


    Now here is something that will actually increase sales, and Apple's stock value. My son works for AT&T and he cannot wait for this move to happen as it is a major complaint among business users.



    Yup, and this corporate AT&T/iPhone deal is already happening at a 10,000+ emp company, per:



    http://www1.investorvillage.com/smbd...sg&mid=3834688
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  • Reply 7 of 19
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Well that explains the IBM announcement re: Lotus Notes access for the iPhone.
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  • Reply 8 of 19
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by CREB View Post


    Now here is something that will actually increase sales, and Apple's stock value. My son works for AT&T and he cannot wait for this move to happen as it is a major complaint among business users.



    This is really the only thing Apple can do now that all stocks have taken a major hit. Unless they can broaden the acceptance of iPhone fast, it will lose ground. Corporate sales are a must these days.
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  • Reply 9 of 19
    Utterly silly report.



    Unless Microsoft Outlook is made compatible with the iPhone as push email, this amounts to a FUD hill of beans.



    If Apple wants to get to 10 million iPhone by end-2008, it will have to figure out how to do this. Period. (All it requires is for SJ and BG to sit down and have a cup of coffee together soon - before BG is history).
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  • Reply 10 of 19
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    If Apple wants to get to 10 million iPhone by end-2008, it will have to figure out how to do this. Period. (All it requires is for SJ and BG to sit down and have a cup of coffee together soon - before BG is history).



    1) 4M sold int eh first 6 months and 12 months to go to sell 6M more.

    2) A possibility of other countries coming on board this year.

    3a) A possibility of a 3G model coming around the middle of the year.

    3b) A 3G model in Europe should be a hit where the 2.5G model is falling short.
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  • Reply 11 of 19
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,717member
    Quote:

    leaving security and a lack of Microsoft Exchange support as two of the primary remaining deterrents.



    Exchange support. Jobs did say that Apple was working on it.



    Security is, I suppose the ability for remote erasure of the data, and remote turning off of the account, neither of which the iPhone allows, while Blackberry and others do.
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  • Reply 12 of 19
    The business I work for has an AT&T account and we have been bugging them about iPhone's release for business accounts since it was released. Finally, with news of the supposed release next week, our CEO went into the store and talked to our business account manager. He told me that the manager showed him a memo stating that iPhone's business plan included a Summer roll-out. Not only this, but that the business account must have more than 100 phones enrolled.



    This leads me to believe that Apple is waiting for a 3G iPhone release before making it an option for business/corporate accounts.



    I hope this is not true, but this came straight from our AT&T store yesterday afternoon.
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  • Reply 13 of 19
    regreg Posts: 832member
    The iPhone will need a camera-less option to be a real business phone.

    Too many businesses and agencies do not allow them.

    It also must be able to read and modify business apps - MS, IBM and Oracle programs.

    Add missing functions - cut & paste, search, group emails etc.



    I don't think these will happen before summer. Still, just opening up the ability to have business accounts could hasten some of the items/programs we want the iphone have.
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  • Reply 14 of 19
    gqbgqb Posts: 1,934member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    Utterly silly report.



    Unless Microsoft Outlook is made compatible with the iPhone as push email, this amounts to a FUD hill of beans.



    If Apple wants to get to 10 million iPhone by end-2008, it will have to figure out how to do this. Period. (All it requires is for SJ and BG to sit down and have a cup of coffee together soon - before BG is history).



    Sorry, but I'm one of those in the corporate pooled minutes boat, and the ability to use the iPhone as a phone with my company number rather than standing out like a sore thumb with my expense report is a MUCH bigger deal, since configuring Exchange for IMAP is trivial as long as you're inside the network. But yes, native Outlook access will be nice whenever that happens. But let me get my bill paid first.
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  • Reply 15 of 19
    gqbgqb Posts: 1,934member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post


    Exchange support. Jobs did say that Apple was working on it.



    Security is, I suppose the ability for remote erasure of the data, and remote turning off of the account, neither of which the iPhone allows, while Blackberry and others do.



    Actually, getting the iPhone into the corporate minutes pool is itself critical to deprovisioning.

    Without it, the device is always a rogue device. With it in the fold, policies and technologies can be implemented.
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  • Reply 16 of 19
    gqbgqb Posts: 1,934member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by reg View Post


    The iPhone will need a camera-less option to be a real business phone.

    Too many businesses and agencies do not allow them.

    It also must be able to read and modify business apps - MS, IBM and Oracle programs.

    Add missing functions - cut & paste, search, group emails etc.



    I don't think these will happen before summer. Still, just opening up the ability to have business accounts could hasten some of the items/programs we want the iphone have.



    1) While I don't doubt that such a policy exists, I've yet to see it in several large companies I'm associated with (including financial). All offer camera enabled phones as part of their standard set of offerings.

    2) There's room for both IO intensive devices (i.e. Blackberry) and fully functional devices (i.e. iPhone where all features are actually usable.) Not every business user needs intensive text IO, and there's no such thing as 'a' (single) real business phone.

    3), but yeah, you would think cut/paste would have been solved by now.
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  • Reply 17 of 19
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by GQB View Post


    1) While I don't doubt that such a policy exists, I've yet to see it in several large companies I'm associated with (including financial). All offer camera enabled phones as part of their standard set of offerings.



    Where I work, there is such a policy. They just ignore it when it comes to phones. Go figure.



    Quote:

    2) There's room for both IO intensive devices (i.e. Blackberry) and fully functional devices (i.e. iPhone where all features are actually usable.) Not every business user needs intensive text IO, and there's no such thing as 'a' (single) real business phone.



    Completely agree.



    Quote:

    3), but yeah, you would think cut/paste would have been solved by now.



    They just need to adopt the Newton gestures for it, they worked well. (Drag to edge to dock something, navigate to where you want it to go, drag the little tab off the screen edge, and drop.) Ironically, *selection* is harder to do than cut/copy/paste.
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  • Reply 18 of 19
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,717member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by GQB View Post


    Sorry, but I'm one of those in the corporate pooled minutes boat, and the ability to use the iPhone as a phone with my company number rather than standing out like a sore thumb with my expense report is a MUCH bigger deal, since configuring Exchange for IMAP is trivial as long as you're inside the network. But yes, native Outlook access will be nice whenever that happens. But let me get my bill paid first.



    Of course. but the these needs should be fulfilled as well before it's considered to be a good corporate citizen.
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  • Reply 19 of 19
    does that mean there will finally be 802.1X support? it better be
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