We all know how the iPhone frenzy has gripped the popular imagination since it was first announced in January 2007. With its cool feature set, sleek looks, powerful computing capabilities, beautiful display, and intuitive touch navigation, this kid from the poster of the mobile generation has captured the imagination of gadget freaks and tech phobics alike. To get an idea of the success of the iPhone, one need only refer to the recent statement by Tim Cook (Apple’s chief operating officer) at a conference: he said that the company had “very good confidence” that the company would reach 10 million iPhones sold by the end of 2008.
According to IDC research, 70 percent of respondents who own or plan to buy an iPhone in the next year consider it for both personal and business use.
Considering the great proliferation of iPhones in such a short time, it is natural that all those who own an iPhone want to extend its use to business as well. And it is no pleasure to carry a Blackberry and an iPhone in any of the pockets. All it does is put additional downward pressure on the belt. It’s no wonder, then, that the usability of the iPhone in a business context is a heated debate today. That’s still a secondary question, because the fact is that current and future iPhone end users see it as something they want to use for business.
The bad news
Unfortunately for businesses, the iPhone was created primarily for the meatier consumer market and was never intended as a business tool.
What clogs the “iPhone for business”
– It is primarily a PIM
– Unsupported Third Party Apps
– Lack of exchange support
Primarily a PIM: iPhone primarily has PIM (personal information manager) capabilities (email, contacts, calendars, calendars, notes) and is not designed to be used for team collaboration, which requires the ability to share and work information together.
Sorry, third-party developers: iPhone runs on a custom operating system called “iPhone OS” and does not currently allow third-party applications to be built and installed on this native operating system. Users are restricted to pre-built applications in the system (mail, SMS, calendar, photos, etc.). This meant that special business-focused applications could not be created to make use of the iPhone’s computing and display capabilities and Internet capability.
No Exchange Support – The most serious omission was the lack of support for MS Exchange, which meant that users couldn’t see even the most basic business information – business mail, contacts, tasks and calendars – on their iPhones, what to say of advanced collaboration. The only way to achieve this was complicated and unreliable workarounds.
The good news
iPhone business features
– Rich Safari Browser
– Allowed web 2.0 applications
– internet friendly
– Recent Apple Announcements
Long live Web 2.0! The good news is that they allowed a small window through which an elephant could be pushed. Shortly after its release, Apple announced that it would allow third-party web applications compliant with Web 2.0 standards to run on the iPhone through its full-featured Safari browser. This effectively meant that the iPhone could be part of the web 2.0 revolution and access all the rich applications it contains.
The Safari Browser: The iPhone Safari Web Browser, is a full web browser with the works. It’s light years away from custom web browsers on traditional corporate handheld devices like Palm’s Blazer browser, Blackberry browser, and so on. It’s not just comparable to a desktop browser, it’s a desktop browser. This allows the iPhone to ride the current wave of web 2.0, rather than just being a bystander.
ACAccording to AT&T and Google, the iPhone generated 50 times more search requests than any other mobile phone.
Internet Capability: iPhone allows Internet access through Wi-Fi or wide-area EDGE networks. An important prerequisite for a mobile device to be an effective remote collaboration tool is the willingness and comfort level of users to use the device to access the web. Thanks in no small part to the big screen and safari browser, the iPhone has been a huge success as a device for accessing the web. iPhone increased average wireless data usage up to 30 times more than other phones.
Apple is finally waking up from its slumber: Only recently has Apple woken up to the previously ignored aspect of business use. This was largely caused by the uproar raised by the media and users about his frustrating lack of commercial sympathy. Even as I write, there’s news that the iPhone finally offers Exchange support and an iPhone SDK (software development kit) that will allow developers to develop apps specifically to be installed on the iPhone.
But these new developments are not only in their infancy, but even in their fetal stage. It will be some time before these new applications find their place and truly provide seamless functionality to businesses.
Exchange support right now is riddled with issues and works only for companies that support Exchange 2007 or Direct Push to Exchange 2003. Also, this and the release of installed iPhone apps won’t happen until a firmware update scheduled for June. from 2008.
Webapps to the rescue: HyperOffice as a case study
HyperOffice was one of the first companies to recognize the opportunity the iPhone presented for rich business applications. Already well experienced in the domain of web-based business collaboration, they developed HyperOffice for iPhone, an iPhone-specific version of their flagship product, HyperOffice.
This allowed business users to use almost the entire feature set of HyperOffice directly from their iPhones. Instead of a standalone personal information manager, HyperOffice enabled the iPhone to be used as a dynamic collaboration tool through which users could access the company intranet, share contacts and calendars, plan projects, share and edit documents, schedule meetings, and much more.
They also realized early on that a major issue for users looking to use the iPhone for business was the lack of Exchange support. HyperOffice allows users to easily overcome this hurdle by acting as a bridge between Exchange and the iPhone. It allows users to receive information directly from Exchange or access Outlook information (mail, contacts, calendars, tasks) directly on iPhone, with or without Exchange. No matter where users access mail and other information from—Outlook, the iPhone email client, or on any other web device—information is automatically synced. Users always get up-to-date information.
