Should You Use iPhones at Your Business?

The introduction of the iPhone on June 29, 2007 marked the start of Apple's entry into the wireless telephone market. The iPhone is a solution which is part telephone, part Internet communications device, and part iPod. Although many market analysts may not agree on what slice of the market will be captured by the iPod, they are in agreement about the fact that the stir created by the product has fueled consumer demand. They also agree that these devices will eventually make their way into the corporate environment. When this happens, businesses need to be prepared. Now is the time for those preparations, before iPhones begin to appear at your company.

Businesses need to have clear policies surrounding the use of new technology at their business. These policies around client data and remote access should be clearly understood, including any regulatory or legal requirements that the company may be held to. If your company has no existing policy around new technology, it's important that you craft them now before these devices begin to enter your network environment. Failing to due so could result in negative consequences for your business.

It's important to understand the new technology product before employees start to use it as a business tool - particularly with the iPhone. The iPhone is designed for consumers instead of business-people, and the product doesn't focus on productivity or security. As a result, use of an iPhone will have effects upon the security level of the information it stores. If stolen, there's no 'remote-wipe' feature to erase the info from the device. Additionally, it cannot be administered or locked remotely from your business location.

Using iPhones for company email can be incompatible for the regulatory and legal guidelines at your business. First of all, the iPhone's email functions are not designed with a corporate infrastructure in mind. It doesn't currently sync with Microsoft Exchange, and there is no enterprise connectivity other than IMAP and POP3. Word, Excel, and PDF documents can be viewed on the iPhone, but they can't be edited.

Although the iPhone is able to sync calendar and contact information from Outlook, the device must be connected directly to a computer to do this; there is not a data 'push' function from Outlook or Exchange as in a Blackberry device. Outlook Web Access and SharePoint are able to function from the iPhone interface, but at this point the extent of which is not known.

A number of web applications work on the iPhone, unless they use Flash or Java for content, and the device supports web 2.0 applications. If using the Safari browsers, iPhones can sync bookmarks. An instant messaging client hasn't yet been demonstrated for an iPhone, although the device supports SMS.

It's important to consider that the sole service provider for the iPhone is AT&T, a company with a reputation for poor service in some areas. Additionally, AT&T's standard Internet service, EDGE, is slower than some other providers' networks. In the future, the iPhone devices could be able to use the newer, faster AT&T network.

Apple is a company known for driving industry through innovation, and will likely continue this aim in the handheld communications marketplace. The touch screen interface, phone and data functionality and integration, and web browser features are raising the bar for the entire handheld market.

With the iPhone, Apple has not intended to create the world's best hand held Exchange client, or provide the ultimate in Windows network integration. Still, they did set out to create a new definition of what a hand held phone and Internet communicator can be, in this case aimed at consumers rather than businesses. Most likely some of your staff members will buy an iPhone for their personal use, then later ask for it to be integrated with your company network. It's important to understand the issues with this and make policy choices before integrating this new technology into your business.