By David Meyer, 5 September 2007 08:13
NEWS
Apple might start making enterprise-class iPhones or incorporate more enterprise-friendly features into existing models, a Gartner analyst has predicted.
Gartner previously dismissed the idea of iPhones becoming business tools but the analyst group seems to be warming to the possibility. Monica Basso, research director at Gartner, said: "I would expect Apple in the future might see some potential in the enterprise market and maybe have devices for enterprise users, or maybe just add to their phone some of the features which would make the device more reasonable for an enterprise deployment. Certainly the support for ActiveSync is one of these [as is] independence from the carrier."
Basso said enterprises' need for flexibility meant different back-end servers would need to be supported, and suggested that a licensing of Microsoft's mobile-synchronisation software would make the iPhone more attractive to businesses using Exchange Server.
She said: "The Exchange email server is the market leaderÂ… I would expect in the future it might happen that we see Apple licensing the ActiveSync software to support direct push on their phones, as Nokia and other manufacturers have done. It is not impossible despite the fact that Apple and Microsoft don't look like partners. There would be some mutual benefits for both of them."
In response, a Microsoft spokesperson said: "We can't comment on rumours. However, we can tell you that we openly license our technology to others, and to date, many mobile device manufacturers, including Nokia and Sony Ericsson, have licensed the Exchange ActiveSync protocol which enables access to Exchange Server email."
Despite her predictions, Basso said the current version of the iPhone is not suitable for enterprise use. "If I look at the iPhone, I see it more as a new threat for enterprises [than] something that is secure.
"There is little support nowadays from a security standpoint that can be put on the iPhone. It doesn't support any of the enterprise mobile email solutions. It doesn't support Exchange direct push. The only thing that is supported [are email clients] that can be connected to POP3 or IMAP4 servers [which] cannot be connected to email servers that sit behind the firewall. This exposes the email server in a way that is not considered secure."
Basso also suggested the iPhone's lack of standardised push email support might lead users to forward their corporate email to a consumer service such as Yahoo!, which could create further security headaches.
However, she conceded that the approach taken by companies offering iPhone-based enterprise application access through the phone's Safari browser - WebEx and NetSuite being two examples - could reduce the exposure to security threats because less data is stored on the device itself. Gartner predicts that, in 2012, 10 million smart phones containing corporate data will be lost or stolen.
Analysts at Butler Group have also raised concerns that, without proper administration of the use of iPhones in businesses, the device will be "user pushed" into companies by owners seeking to integrate their work and personal-management tools.
The iPhone is only currently distributed in the US. Rumours suggest the device will make its UK debut later this year through the mobile operator O2.
Apple could offer no comment at the time of writing.
David Meyer writes for ZDNet UK
Comments
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1. anonymous
An Enterprise iPhone? Gee, that would look a whole lot like "regular" iPhone, but the guy holding it would be wearing a suit. Seriously, all you'd need to do is modify the ATT calling plans. iPhones are already more functional that phones, like Blackberry's, already in use.
I don't know why people still quote Gartner.....
2. anonymous
Exchange is the least secure email anyone could use. In fact, it's responsible for most email viruses that have spread very quickly on Microsoft Windows. (Where else?) The fact that Microsoft makes it so easy to expose the addressbook, sets up a senario where it's quite easy for an infected device to spread a a virus or worm to all contacts in the address book. Exchange is not email, it's a proprietary mess. Real email is based on open standards, and is more secure than Outlook/Exhange (or as it's commonly called, 'Outbreak'). POP3 supports encryption and is an open published standard. No one has used it to infect huge numbers of other computers becasue it's a secure product, unlike any of Microsoft products which are made to be insecure--Microsoft is paid by the 'security' companies such as Symantec to keep this situation going, thereby creating a market for security products that shouldn't even be necessary (and are totally irrelevant on Mac OS X or any Unix/LInux.)
Furthermore, Outlook/Exhange is a monopoly tool that Microsoft uses to keep workers and businesses tied to their products. For this reason, it's only available in Windows. You can access it with a Mac or an iPhone, but only if the webmail interface is open. The webmail interface is so lame though, that you can't even search your email with it. It's 2007 and you can't even search for a message in your email. That is beyond pathetic.
Please Apple, DON'T add exchange support. Make the IT staffs open their webmail interfaces or switch to an actual standards based email system (not standard in the Microsoft sense of a lot of people using it but standard in the real sense that it's published and anyone can use it without licensing it from Microsoft.)