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Dec 12, 08 - 11:50 am Comment from: ElderNorm

Well, .... I just HATE my iPhone.

Well, its black or white..... Why can it be purple??? Whats wrong with purple? Is Apple color biased??

Its rectangular...... What wrong with round. Why can't it be round. You can throw something round much easier.... Apple could sell hundreds (maybe thousands ) if the iPhone were round.

And adapters.... where are the adapters??? They should be placed INSIDE the iPhone for easy of carrying. Pop out a door and there they are. What is wrong with Apple. No internal carry along adapters. Its just so wrong.

So these are all deal breakers for me. NO third iPhone until Steve personally adds these things. I guess that will show him who is boss.........



Just a thought.
en

This is a surprisingly well thought out article. Cut and paste is simply obvious. Some of the other suggestions are more subtle, but equally on point. Does anyone see any real flaws in the author's arguments?
(Let's ignore silly, knee-jerk defenders of the status quo like "ElderNorm"--Apple certainly doesn't stand still.)

Dec 12, 08 - 12:15 pm Comment from: Jamie

7. Allow file storage/management on the iPhone itself

AirSharing anyone?

Ditto, Jamie. Air Share FTW!

Even if Apple were to add file storage, they'd probably screw it up the first time around. I'd hold onto Air Share.

I switched from BlackBerry to iPhone, and feel the following additional feature enhancements would make the iPhone a top notch business solution:

1) Spotlight Search - a proper all-encompassing search icon on the home screen. Email, Calendar, Contacts, Phone Call Log, Notes, SMS, iPod Media, Photo metadata etc. would all be searchable if so configured in iPhone Settings. It's currently a pain to find specific email messages or meetings. I really miss this from my BlackBerry, and I think it is long overdue on iPhone especially if you're a business person.
2) Notes and To-do Task item synchronization with Outlook, iPhone, MobileMe, and Leopard. MobileMe could be advertised as a great Outlook PC to Mac data migration conduit if this all synchronized. To-do/Tasks would also be searchable on iPhone using Spotlight (see #1 above). Again, I really miss this from my Blackberry/Outlook.
3) Copy/Paste.
4) Local file storage to save documents, also with synchronization with the MobileMe iDisk. I would love to have access to certain documents when I'm on the go or out of network coverage area.
5) Dial phone numbers in Calendar items.
6) Improved phone call log that also shows the length of the call.
7) Remote wipe from the MobileMe website in the unfortunate event where the iPhone is lost or stolen. Remote wipe should both optionally PIN lock the SIM card to prevent usage, and leave intact a personalized owner/contact message on the locked iPhone screen should a decent person wish to return a lost iPhone.
8) Add additional meeting attendee(s) to existing meeting in the Calendar.

Cheers,

ITG

Dec 12, 08 - 12:20 pm Comment from: Famous Grouse

"But there's more Apple can do to meet corporate needs, from the perspective of both IT staffers and business users." This is the problem. Corporate IT is a bottomless pit of need. As soon as Apple delivers a set of features, they'll be back howling for more. For a device that is both consumer oriented and personal, Apple really needs to consider whether it is worth trying to address these the needs of Corporate IT staffers when there might be a better way.

Your typical IT philosophy is to try and control everything, whereas the Internet age has shown us that it's the back end that matters. The user should be free to choose their OS, their browser, and their widgets. If IT focus on providing a solid infrastructure and secure access to corporate servers, the users can manage their own iPhones without Big Brother.

As long as Apple can grow revenue without selling out to corporate IT, they should be patient and espouse this "user first" philosophy.

Enterprise must control every facet of a Business cell phone.

So must the cell telcos.

So must Apple.

We all know who will win this tug-of-war.

For the clueless out there his first name is Steve.

I don't see a universal landscape keyboard on the list.

Everybody I know who hates typing on the iPhone feels that way because they're forced to use the skinny portrait keyboard everywhere outside of Safari.

Hell, I hate typing outside of Safari myself.

They need to overhaul the iPhone OS so a universal landscape keyboard can be used everywhere. It's one of the very few things that piece of shit BlackBerry Storm got right.

And give us the option of an alphanumeric passcode already.

Famous Grouse is spot on. Corporations and government have take the "personal" out of the personal computer. Apple should stick with what they are doing and allow people to "think different."

I need the volume and sounds to be customized for incoming email.

I cannot hear the damn thing in the middle of the night when I'm on-call!!!

Dec 12, 08 - 12:36 pm Comment from: ndelc

I'd like to see a couple of things added, not necessarily for business use, but just in general.

1. A "Select All" button for deleting e-mail.
2. The ability to print from iPhone.

10. Develop a mass deployment solution other than iTunes

Yes Apple could you PLEASE add extra nonsense that will make it more convoluted, rather than your nice simple method? It will make us elite business people feel like business people rather than the riff-raff.....and can it come in grey and steel blue only?

Amen to what Famous Grouse says. I think that the reason the iPhone doesn't allow administrators to lock down everything on the phone is that Apple doesn't want to get a bad reputation for crippled phones / software that they didn't create. If my corporate IT guys were made to accept iPhones and were given carte blanche over configuration, the result would look like - guess what? - a BlackBerry Storm. They'd kill it, because they'd make it look like what the IT geeks expect a "business phone" to look like. I'd hate to use the thing. They would simply destroy the sense of childlike pleasure that comes from using an iPhone the way God (excuse me, make that Steve and Jon) intended.

@R2 - alphanumeric passcode

You can do this already with the iPhone Configuration Utility

Tap - wait - screenchange
Tap - wait - screenchange
Tap - wait - screenchange
Tap - wait - screenchange

Please make it faster.

You CANNOT improve the iPhone OR anything else Apple makes. Everything Apple makes is perfect!!! If we REALLY NEEDED cut and paste, for example, Steve would have given it to us already!!!

Why the hell does IT want to lock every fregging thing out? Let people do their job - if they don't then their boss should fire them - people spend too much time trying to get around IT's locks instead of being productive.. Let people have the tools they need NOT the tools IT thinks they need.

Gill - I think you are using a Storm. You are confused.

IT Guy, you hit it on the head, your list was on the money. I've had many smart phones owning companies that keep me mobile, and as much as I love my iPhone, your requests are common sense things that I've had in other phones that we all use in the corporate world daily. It seems like Apple is working hard on upgrading regularly and I'm hoping they impress us all and leave the other (reasonably) smart phones in the dust with a update that covers these and more.

Dec 12, 08 - 01:31 pm Comment from: Chip

11. Make a brown one
12. Enable squirting

cdunn007,

Appreciate your agreement with my post. I haven't even bothered yet to upgrade to the latest iPhone firmware as it don't really speak to my requirements. I'm hoping that once Apple puts the MobileMe problems behind them, they will focus on these common sense iPhone enhancements I suggested in my earlier post. No Spotlight search? C'mon Apple, make 2009 a good year for iPhone business users. The only other addition to the list would be to allow landscape mode in the Mail application, since it would allow for a bigger keyboard, and better viewing of messages/attachments.

MDN word "needs": iPhone needs software feature enhancements to improve productivity for business users.

-ITG

11. Some kind of "Message-waiting-LED".

Because of the dark screen you won't notice anything that happened if you were not around when it happened.

Dec 12, 08 - 02:03 pm Comment from: Cubert

#11 - axe all corporate IT people and start over.

Where did that horrible term "the enterprise" come from?

Sounds like Star Trek.

Business is a much better word for Business.

Couldn't agree more! "Enterprise" is sooo pretentious. What's wrong with "business," or even "corporate"?

Dec 12, 08 - 02:58 pm Comment from: UltraVisitor

Is their any way to use Air Sharing on computers w/o Wifi? Because all the computers at my work are connected with ethernet, so Air Sharing, while it is fun and cool, it is pretty useless to me.

"Why the hell does IT want to lock every fregging thing out?"

Because the assets and information belong to the company, not the end user; it's a fine line to walk when ensuring security and network integrity against end user productivity concerns. That said, IT people don't really care about being popular, since they're damned if they do their job and damned if they don't.

Dec 12, 08 - 05:07 pm Comment from: MobileAdmin

Users don't (still) comprehend it's the business data and protecting said data is all that matters. If you don't like that rule don't connect your device to our infrastructure. Most companies take it even further and just don't allow personal owned devices.

iPhone needs better management and the ability to encrypt - without that we are ceasing to support the device as we have regulation to meet regarding encryption of data.

I'm pretty relaxed in what gets locked down but if your connected to a company on your device expect that your SMS to be logged / audited (as well email), email browsing is usually filtered as well. What company wants to entertain what Apps users can install or not.

Presently Apple offers none of these controls.

ITguy: I have to disagree with you and the article. Apple has an enterprise iPhone developer program where all these lame complaints can be addressed with less whining and more coding. All these complaints are from people who would not know objective-c if it hit them on the head, plus half of them pretend to have an iPhone and keep posting here. One of the great things about the iPhone is simplicity and potential. I hope apple doesn't listen to any of you. And come on MDN, cutting and pasting needs to be on the iPhone? It's not supposed to replace a Mac or a second rate PC- it's mobile for crying out loud and junking up the UI with cut/paste etc is a mistake right now

MobileAdmin: I don't believe you even have an iPhone based on hour remarks. Turn on VPN and protect all your data. Write apps and iPhone friendly web content that is encrypted HTTPS or FTPS or whatever. Lame posting all around. You enterprise phonies are lucky to still be working with the lack of vision on display here and basic misunderstanding of the iPhone platform.

Dec 12, 08 - 09:40 pm Comment from: MobileAdmin

If you'd like a picture of my EDGE (Jailbreaked) or 3G iPhone please let me know.

What the heck does VPN / HTTPS have to do with file system encryption? Data transit is not the issue.

I completely understand the iPhone platform - it's purpose is to support and drive the iTunes ecosystem. It's designed for consumers.

If Apple wants the enterprise market they would appeal more with better management and controls that we need to have when your dealing with thousands of mobile devices. I have actually talked to the enterprise team throughout the OS 2.0 beta and post and I truely think they want to do these things but with no footprint in enterprise they will likely have to make further deals with Microsoft to leverage System Center Device Manager or buy a server based solution (like GOOD, Vostro).

MobileAdmin: your true colors come out. You have no iPhone. Data encryption? Hello- it's about the cloud lame-o, or using the cloud to set encryption so file data can not be taken off the phone and be useful. Mobileadmin of what? Probably another blackberry lurker. Give up and get an iPhone. Oh yeah the iTunes ecosystem is the point of the iPhone? You mean because iTunes generates an absolutely TINY portion of apple's revenue? Do some research first. Apple revenue is hardware & software -plain and simple. iTunes is great but a very small part of apple revenue.

Mobileadmin: by the way, the enterprise actually runs on large Linux and unix arrays- not a bunch of microsoft boxes unless you mean smaller companies with dopey IT who are visionless drones. Sounds like you are a microsoft fanatic - why post here? Come back with a mac, iPhone or something to say that is accurate.

Enable tethering!

Get the basics right:

Like make it roam internationally without having to reboot the phone most of the time to pick up new network providers.

Then make the calendar automatically adjust your appointments when it changes timezone.

Then do a blackberry style reasonably priced all you can use International data roaming plan.

Basics: try getting an iPhone first before rehashing early and resolved issues from last year. You seem like another blackberry lurked here with blind faith in all that RIM does. I guess if it's blackberry it must mean solid gold and it must mean business, right? Times are changing and blackberry is one of the problems plaguing IT and corporate America and contributing to economy problems

"To succeed, Apple will need to prove that the iPhone is more than a media player or a toy. "

They really don't get it. Apple already succeeded. It does not need to do "more than."

Dec 13, 08 - 11:10 am Comment from: Tommy Boy

http://www.myfoxdc.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=8055902&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1

I still say that Apple can do copy and paste in a better way than "copy and paste".

That said, it's nigh about time. Let's get this show moving!

And add support for URLs on calendar events already, dammit!

Dec 14, 08 - 06:58 am Comment from: twilightmoon

MobileAdmin:
" if your connected to a company on your device expect that your SMS to be logged / audited (as well email), email browsing is usually filtered as well."

"Presently Apple offers none of these controls."


Yikes.

I hope to hell Apple never does add *any* of those things. Spying on your employees? Please, if you don't trust them, then don't hire them.

There's no way you can possibly detect every way a resourceful dishonest employee can get around your draconian methods and you're only accomplishing intruding rudely into your honest employees privacy, needlessly.

Some organizations require strict data access, security, and retention policies simply by the nature of their business. Speaking purely from the organizations that I work in, many employees DO realize the IT division is on the hook for ensuring that all technology solutions adhere to corporate standards and polices that have been established by the separate Corporate Security, Corporate Standards, Human Resources, and Legal and Compliance divisions. Clearly worded employee code of conduct handbooks and acceptable usage guidelines for the use of company owned equipment such as desktops, laptops, phones, etc. make it crystal clear that all equipment and data belong to the company, and personal equipment is not allowed to access the corporate network. Employees are made aware that all email and instant messages are logged, along with Web access. Home users must use a company provided laptop for remote access. For example, employees that don't like it when their network account is automatically disabled when they plug a USB drive into their desktop are free to submit an exemption request to the Corporate Security division explaining why they need to do so. Application Metering also prevents unauthorized software from running on company computers. Again, employees are free to submit an exemption request if they need some one-off application that is not part of the corporate desktop standard. Yelling at, abusing the IT staff, or acting unprofessionally will promptly backfire on the user who incorrectly takes their frustrations out on the IT staff. They can expect to hear from Human Resources.

Each organization has their own standards and policies, so it's not simply just the IT department putting their foot down against a particular product or solution. Say the organization wanted to roll out iPhone, it would first have to pass a Threat Risk Assessment review. This review process involves not just the IT division, but includes stewards from the aforementioned Corporate Security, Legal and Compliance, Corporate Standards divisions. The Corporate Security rep would be ensuring things such as if the iPhone could enforce a minimum password length. The assessment documentation would show that you can push a password configuration policy, however the user can simply choose not to accept the policy, or delete the policy at any time. At the end of the day, the review will show how many corporate polices and standards the iPhone can or cannot adhere to, and this decides if it can be given to employees.

BlackBerry has been very successful in many organizations because usage policies can be enforced should they be required. Apple is obviously a very successful consumer focused organization and can easily add similar mandatory security policies if they wish to go after these customers. The App Store, MobileMe, the next generation iPhone, etc. may be higher priorities since the lack of these security features aren't hurting them at this time. There are plenty folks in IT that do like the iPhone but cannot get them approved by company management.

Hopefully Apple will a) Improve on the deployment complexities, b) Add ENFORCEABLE security and configuration polices, c) Add those features from my earlier post, some of which I miss and had on my BlackBerry. These items will allow more organizations to roll out the iPhone.

In the mean time, I still am using my personal iPhone, and my personal BlackBerry is gathering dust on a shelf here.

-ITG