Should firms pick up the iPhone?

While users may be drawn to Apple’s shiny new iPhone, it lacks key features needed for corporate use

I must confess to a distinct lack of excitement about the iPhone; I just find it a little bit underwhelming. Step back from the hype that surrounds anything launched by Apple, and what do you have? It’s basically a pricey touch-screen phone that doesn’t have 3G network support and can’t run third-party applications. It doesn’t even have a keypad, which severely limits its usefulness as a messaging device.

But, then again, I’m looking at the iPhone from the viewpoint of someone wanting a work device, and the iPhone is quite clearly for consumers. The target market seems to be those who already use an iPod and don’t want to be burdened by carrying a separate phone and music player around with them. I doubt whether any IT manager who has tried to curb their employees’ use of iTunes on office machines will look favourably on the iPhone.

Apple’s skill in product styling is beyond question, and the iPhone looks great (at least in photographs), but anyone who has used a smartphone for email knows that a qwerty keypad is essential, and no on-screen soft keys will substitute for the real thing.

Despite hints from Apple chief Steve Jobs that the iPhone is being used by some businesses to access Exchange servers, I find this hard to believe. The built-in support for Imap and POP3 email protocols simply won’t wash with any company that values security. If Apple really wanted to get the iPhone used by business customers, it would either have licensed Microsoft’s ActiveSync protocol, or partnered with one of the middleware messaging vendors.

What I do like the look of is iPhone’s Safari browser, which shows a web page in its entirety, then lets the user pick an area to zoom into for reading. This isn’t unique, however, and users of almost any phone can get the same experience by downloading the Opera Mini 4 browser for free.

One of the things I don’t like is Apple’s apparent reluctance to let third-party developers build applications for the iPhone. This negates the advantage of the handset running a version of Apple’s OS X platform. By contrast, there is a thriving developer community around Microsoft’s Windows Mobile platform, and businesses can use many of the same developer tools as they do for the desktop versions of Windows.

Finally, the iPhone does not have a removable battery, which means that users cannot carry a spare, and the device will have to be returned to Apple when the battery wears out.

So, until I’ve experienced using the iPhone first hand, I won’t be advising any road warriors to ditch their BlackBerry or smartphone just yet.