You Don't Have to Drink Kool-Aid to Taste the Future

The iPhone is not enterprise-ready, he asserts. "Anyone who writes otherwise is simply chug-a-lugging the Apple Kool-Aid." Oh, really, Roy? It's stodgy old farts drinking cocktails who are the problem. They hug-a-jug the status quo and resist change.

Because I don't drink Apple Kool-Aid, it's easy for me to see the iPhone 3G's enterprise shortcomings. But the device's potential is bigger still, and that has little to do with Microsoft Exchange Server support.

Roy questions whether IT organizations will "flirt" with hot iPhone 3G. "Enterprise buying decisions are based on more than what's hot," he rightly observes. "Enterprise IT staffs are already deploying their smart phone of choice: Research in Motion's BlackBerry."

But the BlackBerry wasn't always IT organizations' "smart phone of choice." For years, enterprise IT strongly resisted BlackBerrys. The change from resistance to adoption happened organically, as it had with Palm handhelds years earlier. Employees would buy BlackBerrys for personal use and sneak them around for corporate use, too. I used BlackBerry before there was Exchange support and clearly remember the controversies about rogue devices on corporate networks.

The biggest IT headaches came not from the minions but the managers. Jack CEO would hear about the BlackBerry from Fred Chief Executive. Make no mistake, there is competition among managers from different companies. In the BlackBerry's early days there was a certain status associated with having the device, and then there were legitimate competitive concerns. If Fred Chief Executive is getting legal or marketing advice in real time on his BlackBerry, there might be a decisive advantage during a crucial negotiation. Fred gets the contract because Jack can't get the information he needs.

GOT A TIP OR RUMOR?

RIM later removed IT logistical hurdles by first releasing Exchange support and then a series of useful management tools. The BlackBerry would find a place in the enterprise, but it would take years.

By comparison, iPhone 3G isn't a pioneering device—and that's an advantage. Enterprise IT organizations already have experience with BlackBerry and Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices. "Do they want to manage more?" Roy asks about IT organizations. Probably not, but if the iPhone 3G's forebears are any indication, resistance is futile, particularly when business managers start demanding—not asking—for support. They will insist.

Exchange support is table stakes, it's how to get into the game, and Apple must know this. By supporting Exchange, Nokia, Palm and RIM removed enterprise IT's major reason for not supporting their smart phones and PDAs. Surely Apple learned from the iPhone 3G's predecessors.

I say this: iPhone 3G in the enterprise is inevitable, whether or not IT organizations want the device, because:

• Business adopters of the original iPhone will complain, and loudly, that there is no longer an excuse for IT not to support the device.
• It will be a huge status symbol among executives to have an iPhone, because of its cool appeal.
• Organic demand for the iPhone 3G will be much stronger than for BlackBerrys (and other smart phones) because Apple has created a much more compelling platform.

On the last point, I didn't say "more compelling device," which in many ways it is, but a better platform. I've already blogged about why Apple's iPhone platform is so compelling—and the App Store is one of the major reasons. Please see "Related Posts" below for links.

As for Kool-Aid, I prefer juice and sparkling water.

[Please send your tips or rumors to watchtips at live.com]

Related Posts:

• iPhone 3G: Software + Hardware + Services, Apple Watch, July 22, 2008
• iPhone 3G: Windows 95, Only Better, Apple Watch, July 14, 2008
• Is This Any Way to Launch a Platform?, Apple Watch, July 14, 2008

Posted by Joe Wilcox on July 22, 2008 5:06 PM