There’s no denying that the Apple iPhone has made a rather big splash in the cell phone industry, just as the iPod brought a lot of energy and marketing muscle to the world of MP3 players. Mobile phones these days are capable of doing a lot more than just providing you with voice calls and the iPhone has embraced this philosophy to the utmost. Apple says that it is more powerful than the standard iPod, boasting a full touchscreen display that allows for multiple inputs. People enjoy flipping through their music albums and watching videos in full widescreen mode.
All this said, the general consensus is that while the iPhone offers many features that are comparable to more traditional business handhelds — like the BlackBerry, Treo, and Windows Mobile-based devices — it is not enough to satisfy the corporate power user. One of the greatest strengths of devices like the Motorola Q and the Samsung Blackjack is that they have a full QWERTY keyboard, making it very easy to send and receive email messages on the go. By contrast, the iPhone does not have a physical keyboard, opting instead for a virtual on-screen predictive keyboard. Steve Jobs and the rest of the Apple team say that this is better than a conventional keyboard. Others beg to differ.
Taking everything into account, the Apple iPhone is clearly a very attractive and very powerful device, but perhaps it is better suited to the iPod generation than it is to the corporate business user. It may be great for multimedia on the go and mobile web surfing with a touch-based Safari Internet browser, but some have said that the iPhone ultimately comes up short if you want to use it for work. Case in point, NASA has gone on the record saying that the iPhone is not ready for business use by their employees.
Have you used an iPhone? Do you think it is a suitable business-oriented device?
Vadim
August 10, 2007 10:22 am
Push email and connectivity to enterprise servers are some of the requirements for the business oriented mobile handsets. iPhone may be suitable for SOHO business owners, who use their mobiles for both business and entertainment and not use it as their prime messaging platform.
blogadmin
August 10, 2007 10:36 am
Do you think a soho will want to pay $1000 for a phone which won’t really help them grow their business?
Where they could buy a blackberry for half that price.
Vadim
August 10, 2007 8:20 pm
First of all $599 and not $1000. Second of all, don’t underestimate value of iPhone as a converged music device. Those entrepreneurs that had iPod and a cellphone now can change them both to iPhone and use laptop with free WiFi for messaging. As I see it, the Blackberry value is for “traveling managers”, while iPhone as a converged device may be a lifestyle choice for entrepreneurs.
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