iPhone: Will 2.0 software attract business set?

BY GREGORY COAN

I never wanted an iPhone. Well wait … I’m an IT Geek, of course I WANTED an iPhone but I wasn’t about to pay three or four hundred dollars for a phone. I already had a Motorola phone with AT&T and a laptop handy most of the time, so it all seemed a bit redundant to me. And I don’t really like talking on the phone.

At my job, the users started to come to us asking for help with their iPhones and iTouches, so my boss deemed it necessary to buy me an iPhone, so I could address these issues. Seemed like a good deal to me and I was excited! New Toys! That lasted about a day.

Granted, the iPhone is one elegant piece of hardware. I love the touch screen and menu system, probably because it’s very Mac-like and familiar. As I said I don’t like to talk on the phone, but I do text message a lot. The adjustment to a true QWERTY keyboard was strange on a small device without tactile keys, but I’m used to it now. But like so many gadgets, surface beauty doesn’t equal functionality, and when it comes down to it the iPhone is going to have a hard time breaking out of the iPod-savvy consumer market into the information driven business environment.

However, Apple has announced iPhone software version 2.0 (the beta started in March) which supports Microsoft Exchange and a host of other business-driven applications. Call me skeptical. The main gripe about the iPhone has been its inability to function within environments that run on Microsoft Servers, especially Active Directory and Exchange. In layman’s terms, Active Directory integrates a users email account and calendars, as well as security authentication and collaboration between people. For a Smartphone to be effective in a business environment it must function correctly with these servers as MS still dominates this market.

Email access is about the only thing that does work on my iPhone. I can access my work email on the Active Directory server. However, if I receive any notifications about meetings that should be automatically added to my calendar as happens in Entourage on my Mac, I’m out of luck. Of course the main problem here isn’t really with the iPhone itself. Partial and ultimately quite frustrating integration of Apple products in a MS world is old news. Apple has long tried to make competing products – iCal, Mail and Address Book are Apple’s answers to Microsoft’s server products. But in real world terms, they fall short.

Now in a perfect environment, one where everyone used Macs and the IT department only used Apple Servers, these products would be great. But most of us live in some sort of mixed environment, and as a server administrator with a large Apple user base, I’m constantly struggling to explain why things sort of work, or creating my own partial-hacks to make them work. On the computer front, the Mac version of MS Office has improved this integration.

But even if version 2.0 of the iPhone software works out the problems that allow mail and calendar integration, it’s still hard to see the iPhone competing with other devices such as the Blackberry. However, I think Apple is banking on a shift in server standards. For instance, one thing the iPhone does perfectly is sync with Gmail and not just the email part. A recent Apple System update allows users with iPhones to sync their address books with their Gmail contacts. In addition, iCal already integrates with Google Calendars. I use this in my personal life, and Google already offers a bevy of hosting services. And even more interesting is the fact that educational institutions can get these services for free. Think of it as virtual outsourcing.

Remember for a moment how the iPod changed the entire landscape of music delivery and pricing. In the short term I think someone will develop a way to make the iPhone work in embedded systems, but I really believe that Steve Jobs is trying to use the iPhone as the next device that will change the landscape of information delivery.

Now that I’ve had the phone for a bit, I’m getting used to it. The form factor is a bit big for my pocket especially with its protective case (3rd party of course, and you better get one.) Counting the iPhone I now own three iPods – an original first generation and a fifth generation video model. I’ve added silly webapps for a couple of days and then deleted them. I still read my email on my computer. The camera rocks, and even though I can’t send true MMS messages anymore, the built in WiFi makes emailing them a cinch. When version 2.0 has been vetted by the business elite and the iPhone applications store comes into its own, I’m sure there will be plenty of pretty and pretty useless applications to play with -- most of them not free. Just like mp3s in the iTunes store. The iPhone is about consumer-driven revenue, not business-service integration.

The final obstacle to the iPhone becoming a true business Smartphone is the pricing, not of the device per se, but of the calling plans. There are no group rates available for business customers, but I think AT&T is to blame for this. If the 3G iPhones are available on other carriers as promised, I see this changing fast. And as the iPhones start hitting other and faster networks, perhaps this will drive the kind of change business customers desire. For now though, I view my new phone as a true consumer product – sleek, sexy,
fun but not as good of a waste of time as my Nintendo Wii.

You can e-mail Gregory Coan at ee5150@gmail.com.