Outfitting the iPhone for business Page 2 of 2

Where's the road map?

Even when Apple's SDK comes out, nobody knows whether it will provide the kernel and hardware hooks that security vendors demand. And that brings up another sticking point that enterprises have with Apple: the lack of a publicized road map.

Enterprise IT depends on the technology road maps published by established enterprise vendors such as Intel, Microsoft, IBM, and HP to plan and budget for hardware and software upgrades. Apple's road maps are a closely held secret.

"Since Apple is primarily a consumer company, they won't tell you anything until the day of release," Gartner's Dulaney says.

In the meantime, according to Zdziarski, some prospective iPhone software vendors and enterprise developers have used the Open Source SDK to get their feet wet. Others, such as NetSuite and Salesforce.com, are taking advantage of AJAX for the Safari browser, but this doesn't provide the flexibility and access to the OS that a native SDK would provide.

Another sticking point: Apple's enterprise sales and support staff are minimal, rumored to be in the teens, although Apple would not divulge this information, and Apple has never demonstrated a real commitment to the enterprise, nor does it have any developed enterprise sales channel.

"Apple needs to develop key enterprise partners to help them get past executive appeal and get traction on the IT side, and they simply haven't done it," says Sean Ryan, research analyst for mobile enterprise solutions at IDC.

As for management, Apple offers nothing even remotely similar to the centralized device management capabilities offered by RIM or Microsoft. There are no tools for monitoring mobile assets or enforcing corporate software policies, and the iPhone's reliance on iTunes for activation and software updates just doesn't sit well with IT, nor does the need to send the iPhone back to Apple for a battery change.

Waiting for the SDK

Finally, until the iPhone SDK allows client software installation on the device, there are several outstanding usability issues. Even with existing corporate e-mail solutions, the iPhone doesn't offer true push e-mail, but rather syncs with the server once every 15 minutes, an eternity for true e-mail addicts. It also offers no native calendar and contact syncing abilities, so users might miss rescheduled meetings.

Meanwhile, enterprise e-mail sync vendors such as Visto, Sybase, and IBM have implemented work-arounds to cope with the iPhone's drawbacks. Because the phone provides no data encryption, IBM plans to provide all its Domino access using Safari, with absolutely no e-mail storage on the iPhone itself, according to Kevin Cavanaugh, vice president of Notes and Domino at IBM. Visto and Sybase take advantage of the iPhone e-mail client, but both provide tight control over attachment-download policies. Sybase's iAnywhere can remove mail data from a lost or stolen iPhone, but not until the next time it syncs with the server.

These vendors and others are waiting anxiously for the SDK, after which a number of security and other iPhone enhancements are expected to be offered by third parties, depending on the depth of access provided by the SDK. Meanwhile, AT&T has begun quietly offering business service plans for the iPhone, starting at US$45 per month, although with no notable business-focused extras, such as corporate e-mail syncing, as of yet.

Still, the iPhone has a long way to go before moving beyond an executive luxury to becoming a true enterprise player. Much of the momentum depends on Apple's cooperation and an enterprise commitment it has not demonstrated in the past.

"Apple is doing just fine with consumers and businesspeople who purchase the iPhone with their own money," Dulaney says. "Those two groups make up 85 percent of the 2.5 billion phones out there. What real incentive do they have to screw with the enterprise?"

Reprinted from InfoWorld, an IDG sister site.