Thoughts on the Apple iPhone in the Enterprise

Today's announcements are significant in that lots of Apple people who have never expressed any interest in the enterprise are now professing interest.

In 2003 I was part of a team of Apple directors who made a presentation to a couple of senior executives at Apple.  Our presentation suggested that Apple and Microsoft work together to present enterprise customers with a seamless experience.

We even went to the trouble to make a couple iMovies for the presentation.  One was from a federal CIO who spent his brief air time talking about the importance of true Exchange compatibility.

The idea of licensing MS technology and going after the enterprise was not well received.  We got a lecture on the futility of chasing Exchange compatibility.

Still I thought it was a good idea to go after the enterprise and personally showed the iMovies to Tim Cook who planned to take them to a meeting with Steve.

I find it interesting that Apple now believes it needs the enterprise in order to be successful with the iPhone.

I guess the only reason I find it strange is that I heard plenty of Apple executives say that Apple was not interested in the enterprise.

At the time, it was pretty clear that the only way to really move the needle in the short term on computers was going after the enterprise.

Apple chose another tact and has been very successful over an extended time.  Still we will never know how the balance of enterprise computing might have shifted with a real push at the enterprise from Apple when Windows security was at its worst.

Perhaps this new found love for the enterprise is a reaction to the large drop in Apple's stock price or to iPhone sales numbers that just aren't going to make Steve's target without some help.

It will be interesting to see if Apple ends up with a better Exchange client on the iPhone than is available on their Macs.

I think it is pretty clear what kind of computer is close to Steve's heart these days, and I don't think it is a Mac.

Just maybe Steve has come full circle.  With the iPhone Steve has a product that has the same purity as the original Mac.

To make things even better, now he gets a cut of the price of each application that runs on his baby.

If the enterprise folks have to support iPhone in spite of it being an Apple product, then it makes sense that Steve might make another deal with the devil whose cage he so enjoys rattling.

We will have to wait to see if Apple comes up with another enterprise customer besides Genentech which is always the first enterprise customer mentioned by Apple.

Comments

"I find it interesting that Apple now believes it needs the enterprise in order to be successful with the iPhone".

My take on this is that Apple believes the iPhone is their wedge into the enterprise.

You have stated many times how you feel Apple has missed opportunity after opportunity to gain a foothold in the enterprise. Could it not be Apple realizes a head on operating system assault would be fruitless what with windows complete domination in this arena?

I foresee mobile computing as the wave of the future and Apple (again) is leading the charge into this new/advanced technology.

[Yuhong Bao]

"Perhaps this new found love for the enterprise is a reaction to the large drop in Apple's stock price or to iPhone sales numbers that just aren't going to make Steve's target without some help."
More likely, the iPhone was forced into the enterprise by consumerization, and Apple realized that this would be a good opportunity.