On a pure cost basis, the phones themselves are less expensive to run: their combined plans save about $360 per year, per phone. Stewart adds that individual ownership of devices, instead of handing them out from a corporate pool, has also trimmed costs by persuading workers they should be more careful with their smartphones.
"If an employee owns his own device, the phone tends to hit the pavement a lot less," he says.
Part A] How many people were on this business plan using iPhones? 5, 10, 50, 100? The fewer the people, the more impressed I will be with the 360 dollar savings. Though, savings at all is good anyways!
Part B] So, the company isn't buying the iPhones like they did the blackberries. Their employees are buying the phones then using them on the business's plan. Of course that means there will be a savings when the cost of hardware is taken out!
So instead of Crackberries, we'll have iCrack! Hee hee. As long as the device does what the business needs it to do, I don't care which device they use. All devices have their ups and downs.
It'll be interesting to see exactly this plays out if Apple really does go for more cooperate...
About attachments, I would imagine we would be able to with C/paste. That's the point to it.
I'd hope for something better before long.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dagamer34
would probably require some type of file-system application, and that's not likely to be in 3.0. Maybe next year?
Hopefully Apple is looking into these kinds of things - but most likely this could be done in combination with MobileMe. iDisk can send "attachment links" via email, linking to the iDisk original - something like that on the iPhone could be very effective. It would also allow you to send small or huge attachments without using your data allowance. And Apple gets to push MobileMe some more.
Beyond that, as others have said, no reason in the v3 software that "Air Share" couldn't let you place a file into an email to send, is there?
Typing kills the iPhone. Add a keyboard to the iPhone and RIM will have their work cut out for them to stay competitive. Security is another issue in corporate situations, which RIM has done quite well.
RIM may be falling behind, but don't discount them yet.
Think of this like a corporate IT manager: what is the business case for mobile data devices? there are four primary business case concerns in this space
1: Phone - I give this one to Blackberry, voice dialing is a God Send
2: Email: By the articals own statement, the BB wins email, you cant even search messages on the iphone
3: Data tethering for road warriors: BB Wins by Forfeit on this one.
4: Right carrier for the right region; ATT has great coverage in some areas, in other parts of the country, VZW or Sprint and sometimes even tmobile is a better choice...you cant choose carriers on iphone, a big no no for corps.
So I fail to see why a business would select iphone right now, of course 3.0 changes the game, but the article speaks in terms of today.iPhone is a great gadget, but if it is second place to BB on all four counts, so what is the business case for iPhone?
while not terribly important, there is other key, the iphone comes with a camera and no choice, some companies, (think medical and finance) may not want employees having company issued cameras, this is particularly true for third party auditors who go into company and look at the books, when companys bring in outside firms, they don't want to risk unauthorized pics being taken in an R and D area.
So I fail to see why a business would select iphone right now, of course 3.0 changes the game, but the article speaks in terms of today.iPhone is a great gadget, but if it is second place to BB on all four counts, so what is the business case for iPhone?
You miss the point of the article, that the uses of the iPhone go beyond the traditional idea of a phone which also gives you great email. The iPhone gets used for new things that the BB can't match, and people are treating the iPhone more like their computer rather than an adjunct.
That means you have to add another business need to your list, and also it reduces the importance of the tethering.
Typing kills the iPhone. Add a keyboard to the iPhone and RIM will have their work cut out for them to stay competitive. Security is another issue in corporate situations, which RIM has done quite well.
Typing is difficult on the iPhone only if you cannot let go of the Black Berry. You cannot type on virtual keyboard as though you are typing on a hard keyboard and expect to have the same result.
Quote:
RIM may be falling behind, but don't discount them yet.
RIM isn't falling behind this past quarter they have done very well.
I might consider an iPhone if they ever get Exchange syncing right. It still won't automatically sync any email folders besides the Inbox, which for me is where my junk mail goes; all my real mail gets sorted into the appropriate folders. But the iPhone won't sync those automatically, making it next to worthless for me.
Um......I find the above quote a bit hard to believe, or.....the person spends more time on the net and playing with apps, then doing emails. I (unfortunately) reply, send, etc, probably 25-30 emails on the phone a day. Many of these emails are fairly long. There is NO way I would want to use an iphone for these longer emails. (not to mention all the variety of attachments etc). I agree with the article. The blackberry is better for emails, the iphone everything else. Oh, I don't use a blackberry btw, I still use a treo 755p, but I sure plan on getting a 9630 eventually. And keeping my iPod Touch in my briefcase for playing, and surfing at hot spots. When the iphone gets a physical qwerty keyboard, and allows serious GPS apps with voice routing (like garmin) I would throw away everything else, and get one
I have little doubt someone will come up with a flip keyboard/hardware attachment for iPhone that will finally push the Blackberry into the dustbin of history.
You miss the point of the article, that the uses of the iPhone go beyond the traditional idea of a phone which also gives you great email. The iPhone gets used for new things that the BB can't match, and people are treating the iPhone more like their computer rather than an adjunct.
That means you have to add another business need to your list, and also it reduces the importance of the tethering.
hmmm...I think you inadvertently hurt your case...can you edit ppt, excel, and such on an iphone? you can on a BB, but its a pain..., as it would be on the iphone because the screen is tiny. BB can be connected to a projector directly to deliver PPTs, using a 3rd party app and special USB-"DVI interface, can the iphone do that? BB can also browse published file shares...for example, my former manager and I were doing a little test, we wanted to open the latest inventory report and find the location of an asset...took him 30 seconds, took me a lot longer, and I was only able to do it because I had forwarded it from my desk earlier, so it was an attachment: BB is still the business king...I am a huge iphone guy, but it is obvious that this article is written by analysts, guys who read spreadsheets and make phone calls, guys that have never answered a support call at 12:00 midnighht, guys who have never implemented deployed and supported a system that manages wireless devices in a company.
The iphone has great potential, and I would love to see it get there, but truth is, it just isnt as good as the BB for business.
I work at a very large (many thousands of users) government office where Blackberries have been prevalent for years and are readily available as government funded (& owned) equipment to most who want one. The IT department has been generally Apple hostile for many years and iPhones are definitely not supported.
I bought my iPhone as a personal phone the day they first came out. (I neither have nor want a 'company' Blackberry.) I quickly started using it at work to access email via our webmail system. It was usable in a pinch, but not very convenient since I could not access our facility wifi on the iPhone (IT won't give guest user accounts for personal phones) and webmail of Edge is a bit clunky. Mostly I used it when on the road.
However, when the 2.0 upgrade came out, with the addition of LEAP I was able to access the facility wifi through my regular user account name & password and to set up an email account on my iPhone that accesses my work Exchange account. It took only a matter of minutes and no help from IT nor any special access. My iPhone now automatically switches from my home wifi to Edge to work wifi, etc. as I move around during the day and all the while keeps my personal and work email accounts updated and in separate folders. The transition between work and personal is now so seamless that I barely even notice, but the emails are all kept separate. If I need to do any heavy web stuff on the phone, the wifi is there at work as well. I can even set the work email for push notifications and I actually get the Exchange mail so fast on my iPhone that I usually finish reading the message before it even shows up on my hard wired desktop machine at work. (I usually leave push off because the heavy email traffic can munch the battery pretty quick and the 15 minute updates are more than good enough.) Going on travel is now like never loosing access.
All without any effort or even awareness on the part of the IT department. There are a number of us 'bootleg' iPhone users there now, even some on ipod touches. It is my phone and my account so there is no conflict with using it for whatever personal stuff I want to as well. It works as well or better than the crackberries for work stuff, let alone being an ipod. As long as IT leaves us alone, I'll be perfectly happy with the situation. The only nice thing would be if I could talk them into subsidizing a data tethering upgrade to my AT&T account when iPhone 3.0 adds that. (Cell modems are still a very privileged perq.)
No way would I ever want to get a 'company' Blackberry phone now. I have one (very slim) device that does all I need for work and personal and I control it. (And NO WAY would I want a clunker of a phone bloated out with one of those stupid chicklet keyboards. The iPhone virtual keyboard is a stroke of genius - hopefully physical keyboard phones will go the way of the command line interface very soon.)
The convenience is unbelievable and the simplicity of getting it set up still seems surreal for the lack of effort required. All at no cost and no effort required from my employer. Like I said, I don't think the IT department even knows us users are doing this. They certainly didn't do anything for us to enable it that I am aware of and they aren't getting charged for us like they are for all the officially sanctioned crackberry users.
As others have mentioned, the only thing beyond the 3.0 updates (hardware & software) that I'd really like to see is a built-in file handling app (sort of a mini Finder). I'll probably try one of the third party ones as soon as 3.0 is out though.
Both iPhone and BB have cameras, and videos eventually, so one or the other being more or less of a threat as far as unauthorized image capture is non issue, or at least won't be an issue soon...
External keyboard for iPhone, could kill BB...
The closer iPhone resembles desktop-laptop features, the sooner it'll take a lead in corporate world, and among the civilians!
I hope it'll be easy for me to transfer my Memos from Palm Treo 700p to iPhone!
I'd like to see this on iPhone: attaching Memos and Appointments to Contact, and Contact to Contact - ala Auto Tagging. I've used that on my Palm Desktop on Mac for years, and Entourage 2004 has that. So, if iPhone too has that, it would be great!
Video recording, and Chatting would push iPhone through the roof!
Lucky are those who bought AAPL recently at $80... Wish I could have done that!
If Steve Jobs comes back, that's an extra bonus!!!
Palm Pre could be a surprise...and a distraction, but hey, if they keep Apple on its toes, cool... And I wouldn't bet on Pre...
In 2-3 years with 4G - that's when it's gonna be SERIOUS FUN!!!!
The functions you've listed are simply software functions. There is nothing that prevents the iPhone from performing any of those functions outside of the fact that the software has not been written. The iPhone (or any phone) would make a far better remote control for Power Point than the primary presentation device.
I do agree with you though that the BB was designed primarily to meet the needs of business with some consumer function built in, the iPhone was designed primarily to meet the needs of consumers with some business function built in.
Quote:
Originally Posted by a_greer
hmmm...I think you inadvertently hurt your case...can you edit ppt, excel, and such on an iphone? you can on a BB, but its a pain..., as it would be on the iphone because the screen is tiny. BB can be connected to a projector directly to deliver PPTs, using a 3rd party app and special USB-"DVI interface, can the iphone do that? BB can also browse published file shares...for example, my former manager and I were doing a little test, we wanted to open the latest inventory report and find the location of an asset...took him 30 seconds, took me a lot longer, and I was only able to do it because I had forwarded it from my desk earlier, so it was an attachment: BB is still the business king...I am a huge iphone guy, but it is obvious that this article is written by analysts, guys who read spreadsheets and make phone calls, guys that have never answered a support call at 12:00 midnighht, guys who have never implemented deployed and supported a system that manages wireless devices in a company.
The iphone has great potential, and I would love to see it get there, but truth is, it just isnt as good as the BB for business.
The number of people who like touchscreen typing are far outstripped by the number of people who do not, and it's a divide that's not likely to ever be reconciled. Apple needs both to really penetrate the enterprise market.
Typing is difficult on the iPhone only if you cannot let go of the Black Berry. You cannot type on virtual keyboard as though you are typing on a hard keyboard and expect to have the same result.
Agreed
I carry both a Curve and an iPhone. I used to think I typed quickly on the BB's physical keyboard, but after a few weeks I'd already become faster on the virtual keyboard. I find the predictive correction allows me to tap away as fast as I can and have messes like rmvrtpr automatically morph into encrypt
not very corporate if you want to load a sales app for your sales force and you have to use the App Store to do it. one the blackberry you can load apps by packaging them into an executable
Stop spouting crap and read up on what Apple provides to enterprise customers.
Maybe al, you take your hands out of your pants and let your fingers do some googling.
Re needing the physical keyboard to type on: I'd have thought it was better too, and ANY habit is very hard to change. But I recently found myself "touch typing" on my iPhone without looking at the keys! Surprising. As soon as I thought about it I couldn't do it anymore
A physical keyboard IS very nice in some ways, but no small keyboard is ever ideal. Even a Blackberry keyboard is a compromise for portability. The iPhone is a compromise too--and the iPhone's keyboard does have certain advantages* over the Blackberry. Both device's keyboards have advantages--they're just different ones. And if you've spent hours a day for months on one of them, the other is bound to bother you! Too bad we can't have the best of both types of keyboard.
* Some iPhone keyboard benefits: bigger screen in a smaller device, landscape and portrait modes, keys that will never get sticky or jam, key labels that adapt as needed (different languages, URL keyboard, giant numpad, easy accents, etc.), ability to hit more than one key at once and it doesn't matter: the hit area for an iPhone key is larger than what you see: letters that actually spell words get bigger. Plus you're SUPPOSED to hit more than one key at once on the iPhone: it's the key closest to the middle of the press that counts. On a Blackberry if you hit two keys at once you hit two keys at once--it can't geometrically tell which you were "closest" to. So speed typing on an iPhone can be amazingly accurate once you have the necessary habits.
Quote:
Originally Posted by monstrosity
is there a limit on the number of devices you can install on for enterprise? (non app store?)
Not as far as I know--and if there is, it must be in the thousands.
(This is not the same as "ad hoc" distribution for beta testing--that also bypasses the App Store but is limited to 100 users. And you don't need to be an Enterprise Developer for that.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by bsenka
The number of people who like touchscreen typing are far outstripped by the number of people who do not, and it's a divide that's not likely to ever be reconciled. Apple needs both to really penetrate the enterprise market.
The number of people who say they do not like touchscreen typing is far larger than the number who have truly TRIED it at length on an Apple product And the number of people who LIKE a Blackberry's tiny keys is smaller than the number who find it, at best, effective given the need for compactness.
But the number who have tried an iPhone or iPod Touch is a fast-growing number...
hmmm...I think you inadvertently hurt your case...can you edit ppt, excel, and such on an iphone? you can on a BB, but its a pain..., as it would be on the iphone because the screen is tiny. BB can be connected to a projector directly to deliver PPTs, using a 3rd party app and special USB-"DVI interface, can the iphone do that? BB can also browse published file shares...for example, my former manager and I were doing a little test, we wanted to open the latest inventory report and find the location of an asset...took him 30 seconds, took me a lot longer, and I was only able to do it because I had forwarded it from my desk earlier, so it was an attachment: BB is still the business king...I am a huge iphone guy, but it is obvious that this article is written by analysts, guys who read spreadsheets and make phone calls, guys that have never answered a support call at 12:00 midnighht, guys who have never implemented deployed and supported a system that manages wireless devices in a company.
The iphone has great potential, and I would love to see it get there, but truth is, it just isnt as good as the BB for business.
My case, as such , was that we can't judge the functionality of the phones based mainly on email & tethering - which until now have been the key uses.
So then it comes down to what functions you either need, or would use extensively (but don't realise you need yet). For now, different phones do different things. I think it's great that your BB can do overheads, though I personally wouldn't edit spreadsheets or word documents on a phone, it's just not what I have it for (no matter which keyboard it has!). I often check the tide & weather, podcasts, movie information & trailers, play a few games, read news or websites, and so on (in addition to mail, faxes, calendar, music, etc).
It's not good picking single tasks and comparing against phones. The iPhone will win many of those comparisons due to the sheer number of apps available - but then we're judging so many things which are irrelevant to our working life.
ps. Remember that making something simple to use ends up defining how useful the phone is, too.
The fact that this corporation has its employees buying their own devices has escaped all but one of you so far. In the wash, does that make it cheaper? In the alternative, do you condone cost shifting of what are essentially company assets?
Comments
On a pure cost basis, the phones themselves are less expensive to run: their combined plans save about $360 per year, per phone. Stewart adds that individual ownership of devices, instead of handing them out from a corporate pool, has also trimmed costs by persuading workers they should be more careful with their smartphones.
"If an employee owns his own device, the phone tends to hit the pavement a lot less," he says.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
Part A] How many people were on this business plan using iPhones? 5, 10, 50, 100? The fewer the people, the more impressed I will be with the 360 dollar savings. Though, savings at all is good anyways!
Part B] So, the company isn't buying the iPhones like they did the blackberries. Their employees are buying the phones then using them on the business's plan. Of course that means there will be a savings when the cost of hardware is taken out!
So instead of Crackberries, we'll have iCrack! Hee hee. As long as the device does what the business needs it to do, I don't care which device they use. All devices have their ups and downs.
It'll be interesting to see exactly this plays out if Apple really does go for more cooperate...
About attachments, I would imagine we would be able to with C/paste. That's the point to it.
I'd hope for something better before long.
would probably require some type of file-system application, and that's not likely to be in 3.0. Maybe next year?
Hopefully Apple is looking into these kinds of things - but most likely this could be done in combination with MobileMe. iDisk can send "attachment links" via email, linking to the iDisk original - something like that on the iPhone could be very effective. It would also allow you to send small or huge attachments without using your data allowance. And Apple gets to push MobileMe some more.
Beyond that, as others have said, no reason in the v3 software that "Air Share" couldn't let you place a file into an email to send, is there?
RIM may be falling behind, but don't discount them yet.
"We find the BlackBerry better for email and calendaring and the iPhone better for everything else," he notes.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
Think of this like a corporate IT manager: what is the business case for mobile data devices? there are four primary business case concerns in this space
1: Phone - I give this one to Blackberry, voice dialing is a God Send
2: Email: By the articals own statement, the BB wins email, you cant even search messages on the iphone
3: Data tethering for road warriors: BB Wins by Forfeit on this one.
4: Right carrier for the right region; ATT has great coverage in some areas, in other parts of the country, VZW or Sprint and sometimes even tmobile is a better choice...you cant choose carriers on iphone, a big no no for corps.
So I fail to see why a business would select iphone right now, of course 3.0 changes the game, but the article speaks in terms of today.iPhone is a great gadget, but if it is second place to BB on all four counts, so what is the business case for iPhone?
while not terribly important, there is other key, the iphone comes with a camera and no choice, some companies, (think medical and finance) may not want employees having company issued cameras, this is particularly true for third party auditors who go into company and look at the books, when companys bring in outside firms, they don't want to risk unauthorized pics being taken in an R and D area.
So I fail to see why a business would select iphone right now, of course 3.0 changes the game, but the article speaks in terms of today.iPhone is a great gadget, but if it is second place to BB on all four counts, so what is the business case for iPhone?
You miss the point of the article, that the uses of the iPhone go beyond the traditional idea of a phone which also gives you great email. The iPhone gets used for new things that the BB can't match, and people are treating the iPhone more like their computer rather than an adjunct.
That means you have to add another business need to your list, and also it reduces the importance of the tethering.
Typing kills the iPhone. Add a keyboard to the iPhone and RIM will have their work cut out for them to stay competitive. Security is another issue in corporate situations, which RIM has done quite well.
Typing is difficult on the iPhone only if you cannot let go of the Black Berry. You cannot type on virtual keyboard as though you are typing on a hard keyboard and expect to have the same result.
RIM may be falling behind, but don't discount them yet.
RIM isn't falling behind this past quarter they have done very well.
There is NO way I would want to use an iphone for these longer emails.
What is the problem with the iPhone and the length of emails!?
When the iphone gets a physical qwerty keyboard....
Enjoy your 755p (and the like) for life! That'll be a long time coming.....
Um......I find the above quote a bit hard to believe, or.....the person spends more time on the net and playing with apps, then doing emails. I (unfortunately) reply, send, etc, probably 25-30 emails on the phone a day. Many of these emails are fairly long. There is NO way I would want to use an iphone for these longer emails. (not to mention all the variety of attachments etc). I agree with the article. The blackberry is better for emails, the iphone everything else. Oh, I don't use a blackberry btw, I still use a treo 755p, but I sure plan on getting a 9630 eventually. And keeping my iPod Touch in my briefcase for playing, and surfing at hot spots. When the iphone gets a physical qwerty keyboard, and allows serious GPS apps with voice routing (like garmin) I would throw away everything else, and get one
I have little doubt someone will come up with a flip keyboard/hardware attachment for iPhone that will finally push the Blackberry into the dustbin of history.
You miss the point of the article, that the uses of the iPhone go beyond the traditional idea of a phone which also gives you great email. The iPhone gets used for new things that the BB can't match, and people are treating the iPhone more like their computer rather than an adjunct.
That means you have to add another business need to your list, and also it reduces the importance of the tethering.
hmmm...I think you inadvertently hurt your case...can you edit ppt, excel, and such on an iphone? you can on a BB, but its a pain..., as it would be on the iphone because the screen is tiny. BB can be connected to a projector directly to deliver PPTs, using a 3rd party app and special USB-"DVI interface, can the iphone do that? BB can also browse published file shares...for example, my former manager and I were doing a little test, we wanted to open the latest inventory report and find the location of an asset...took him 30 seconds, took me a lot longer, and I was only able to do it because I had forwarded it from my desk earlier, so it was an attachment: BB is still the business king...I am a huge iphone guy, but it is obvious that this article is written by analysts, guys who read spreadsheets and make phone calls, guys that have never answered a support call at 12:00 midnighht, guys who have never implemented deployed and supported a system that manages wireless devices in a company.
The iphone has great potential, and I would love to see it get there, but truth is, it just isnt as good as the BB for business.
I bought my iPhone as a personal phone the day they first came out. (I neither have nor want a 'company' Blackberry.) I quickly started using it at work to access email via our webmail system. It was usable in a pinch, but not very convenient since I could not access our facility wifi on the iPhone (IT won't give guest user accounts for personal phones) and webmail of Edge is a bit clunky. Mostly I used it when on the road.
However, when the 2.0 upgrade came out, with the addition of LEAP I was able to access the facility wifi through my regular user account name & password and to set up an email account on my iPhone that accesses my work Exchange account. It took only a matter of minutes and no help from IT nor any special access. My iPhone now automatically switches from my home wifi to Edge to work wifi, etc. as I move around during the day and all the while keeps my personal and work email accounts updated and in separate folders. The transition between work and personal is now so seamless that I barely even notice, but the emails are all kept separate. If I need to do any heavy web stuff on the phone, the wifi is there at work as well. I can even set the work email for push notifications and I actually get the Exchange mail so fast on my iPhone that I usually finish reading the message before it even shows up on my hard wired desktop machine at work. (I usually leave push off because the heavy email traffic can munch the battery pretty quick and the 15 minute updates are more than good enough.) Going on travel is now like never loosing access.
All without any effort or even awareness on the part of the IT department. There are a number of us 'bootleg' iPhone users there now, even some on ipod touches. It is my phone and my account so there is no conflict with using it for whatever personal stuff I want to as well. It works as well or better than the crackberries for work stuff, let alone being an ipod. As long as IT leaves us alone, I'll be perfectly happy with the situation. The only nice thing would be if I could talk them into subsidizing a data tethering upgrade to my AT&T account when iPhone 3.0 adds that. (Cell modems are still a very privileged perq.)
No way would I ever want to get a 'company' Blackberry phone now. I have one (very slim) device that does all I need for work and personal and I control it. (And NO WAY would I want a clunker of a phone bloated out with one of those stupid chicklet keyboards. The iPhone virtual keyboard is a stroke of genius - hopefully physical keyboard phones will go the way of the command line interface very soon.)
The convenience is unbelievable and the simplicity of getting it set up still seems surreal for the lack of effort required. All at no cost and no effort required from my employer. Like I said, I don't think the IT department even knows us users are doing this. They certainly didn't do anything for us to enable it that I am aware of and they aren't getting charged for us like they are for all the officially sanctioned crackberry users.
As others have mentioned, the only thing beyond the 3.0 updates (hardware & software) that I'd really like to see is a built-in file handling app (sort of a mini Finder). I'll probably try one of the third party ones as soon as 3.0 is out though.
External keyboard for iPhone, could kill BB...
The closer iPhone resembles desktop-laptop features, the sooner it'll take a lead in corporate world, and among the civilians
I hope it'll be easy for me to transfer my Memos from Palm Treo 700p to iPhone!
I'd like to see this on iPhone: attaching Memos and Appointments to Contact, and Contact to Contact - ala Auto Tagging. I've used that on my Palm Desktop on Mac for years, and Entourage 2004 has that. So, if iPhone too has that, it would be great!
Video recording, and Chatting would push iPhone through the roof!
Lucky are those who bought AAPL recently at $80... Wish I could have done that!
If Steve Jobs comes back, that's an extra bonus!!!
Palm Pre could be a surprise...and a distraction, but hey, if they keep Apple on its toes, cool... And I wouldn't bet on Pre...
In 2-3 years with 4G - that's when it's gonna be SERIOUS FUN!!!!
I do agree with you though that the BB was designed primarily to meet the needs of business with some consumer function built in, the iPhone was designed primarily to meet the needs of consumers with some business function built in.
hmmm...I think you inadvertently hurt your case...can you edit ppt, excel, and such on an iphone? you can on a BB, but its a pain..., as it would be on the iphone because the screen is tiny. BB can be connected to a projector directly to deliver PPTs, using a 3rd party app and special USB-"DVI interface, can the iphone do that? BB can also browse published file shares...for example, my former manager and I were doing a little test, we wanted to open the latest inventory report and find the location of an asset...took him 30 seconds, took me a lot longer, and I was only able to do it because I had forwarded it from my desk earlier, so it was an attachment: BB is still the business king...I am a huge iphone guy, but it is obvious that this article is written by analysts, guys who read spreadsheets and make phone calls, guys that have never answered a support call at 12:00 midnighht, guys who have never implemented deployed and supported a system that manages wireless devices in a company.
The iphone has great potential, and I would love to see it get there, but truth is, it just isnt as good as the BB for business.
Typing is difficult on the iPhone only if you cannot let go of the Black Berry. You cannot type on virtual keyboard as though you are typing on a hard keyboard and expect to have the same result.
Agreed
I carry both a Curve and an iPhone. I used to think I typed quickly on the BB's physical keyboard, but after a few weeks I'd already become faster on the virtual keyboard. I find the predictive correction allows me to tap away as fast as I can and have messes like rmvrtpr automatically morph into encrypt
can you load apps on an iphone without itunes?
not very corporate if you want to load a sales app for your sales force and you have to use the App Store to do it. one the blackberry you can load apps by packaging them into an executable
Stop spouting crap and read up on what Apple provides to enterprise customers.
Maybe al, you take your hands out of your pants and let your fingers do some googling.
A physical keyboard IS very nice in some ways, but no small keyboard is ever ideal. Even a Blackberry keyboard is a compromise for portability. The iPhone is a compromise too--and the iPhone's keyboard does have certain advantages* over the Blackberry. Both device's keyboards have advantages--they're just different ones. And if you've spent hours a day for months on one of them, the other is bound to bother you! Too bad we can't have the best of both types of keyboard.
* Some iPhone keyboard benefits: bigger screen in a smaller device, landscape and portrait modes, keys that will never get sticky or jam, key labels that adapt as needed (different languages, URL keyboard, giant numpad, easy accents, etc.), ability to hit more than one key at once and it doesn't matter: the hit area for an iPhone key is larger than what you see: letters that actually spell words get bigger. Plus you're SUPPOSED to hit more than one key at once on the iPhone: it's the key closest to the middle of the press that counts. On a Blackberry if you hit two keys at once you hit two keys at once--it can't geometrically tell which you were "closest" to. So speed typing on an iPhone can be amazingly accurate once you have the necessary habits.
is there a limit on the number of devices you can install on for enterprise? (non app store?)
Not as far as I know--and if there is, it must be in the thousands.
(This is not the same as "ad hoc" distribution for beta testing--that also bypasses the App Store but is limited to 100 users. And you don't need to be an Enterprise Developer for that.)
The number of people who like touchscreen typing are far outstripped by the number of people who do not, and it's a divide that's not likely to ever be reconciled. Apple needs both to really penetrate the enterprise market.
The number of people who say they do not like touchscreen typing is far larger than the number who have truly TRIED it at length on an Apple product
But the number who have tried an iPhone or iPod Touch is a fast-growing number...
hmmm...I think you inadvertently hurt your case...can you edit ppt, excel, and such on an iphone? you can on a BB, but its a pain..., as it would be on the iphone because the screen is tiny. BB can be connected to a projector directly to deliver PPTs, using a 3rd party app and special USB-"DVI interface, can the iphone do that? BB can also browse published file shares...for example, my former manager and I were doing a little test, we wanted to open the latest inventory report and find the location of an asset...took him 30 seconds, took me a lot longer, and I was only able to do it because I had forwarded it from my desk earlier, so it was an attachment: BB is still the business king...I am a huge iphone guy, but it is obvious that this article is written by analysts, guys who read spreadsheets and make phone calls, guys that have never answered a support call at 12:00 midnighht, guys who have never implemented deployed and supported a system that manages wireless devices in a company.
The iphone has great potential, and I would love to see it get there, but truth is, it just isnt as good as the BB for business.
My case, as such
So then it comes down to what functions you either need, or would use extensively (but don't realise you need yet). For now, different phones do different things. I think it's great that your BB can do overheads, though I personally wouldn't edit spreadsheets or word documents on a phone, it's just not what I have it for (no matter which keyboard it has!). I often check the tide & weather, podcasts, movie information & trailers, play a few games, read news or websites, and so on (in addition to mail, faxes, calendar, music, etc).
It's not good picking single tasks and comparing against phones. The iPhone will win many of those comparisons due to the sheer number of apps available - but then we're judging so many things which are irrelevant to our working life.
ps. Remember that making something simple to use ends up defining how useful the phone is, too.