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Apr 07, 08 - 11:26 am Comment from: iWill

iPhone 2.0 is the 'Trojan Horse' that is going to be used to infiltrate the corporate hierarchy from top to bottom. Think of it as the 'Stealth Mac'. Its only a matter of time before the tipping point is achieved. . .

I see it as more of a first step in changing the perception of enterprise to being more amenable to things that aren't solely Microsoft based. They think they need all this Microsoft shit but they don't, Apple give them this but then hook them in and gradually get them off the junk.

I would like to see real time stock quotes.

Apr 07, 08 - 11:33 am Comment from: Rich Apple person

Most companies are way too entrenched in the PC/Windows platform to change to Mac's, especially when you consider the expensed associated with training people and purchasing new equipment. iPhone 2.0 is going to give the IT Nazi's major headaches but as competitors come out with clones the iPhone mania will pass.

No. Apple is releasing iPhone 2.0 and the SDK to distance itself from enterprise applications. In fact, SDK and enterprise Apple Web introduction page that has been up for over a month is a ruse design specifically to confuse hyper-intelligent web pundits.

Just my $0.02

Apr 07, 08 - 11:40 am Comment from: dd

This will turn the tide. You want to program for the iPhone? Guess what computer you need.

Apr 07, 08 - 11:49 am Comment from: MikeK

"This will turn the tide. You want to program for the iPhone? Guess what computer you need."

------------------------------

Windows developers alone are not gonna make a difference.. Even if say 50,000 Windows only developers went out and bought Macs at once with the intent to develop for iPhone, that is nothing compared to the 2 million or so Macs that Apple typically sells in a quarter..

@Rich Apple person

Companies that want to stay alive today need to find ways to cut costs and gain value from little things like their IT infrastructure. Those entrenched companies can stay the way they are and get left behind.
And as for iphone clones........your kidding...right?

Apr 07, 08 - 11:57 am Comment from: Cubert

"...the antithesis to stodgy old corporate technology that burns the eyes red and freezes computers blue"

Man, that is freakin' hilarious!!!

iPhone 2.0 will not open the floodgates to companies dumping Windows PCs and buying Macs. It will; however, open the eyes of many people who have not really looked at a Mac in a long time.

It may also open the eyes of IT professionals – if Apple can show (and support!) how easy it is to have the iPhone do what IT and the actual users need, then they may become more open to Macs in the enterprise.

There is still the problem of mixed environments, and dealing with proprietary software that runs only on Windows/DOS. Yes, Parallels/VMware help, but it's still not as seamless as if the software was written for Mac OS X.

And despite MDN and other's claims that you don't need Microsoft Office, the fact is that many organizations do need Office, and Pages simply does not translate everything from an Office doc correctly.

Apr 07, 08 - 12:10 pm Comment from: NCIceman

Apple in the enterprise is inevitable...

Apple in the enterprise inevitable? Not even close.

They don't have the infrastructure or interest in supporting businesses, not the least of which is because businesses have zero interest in buying new hardware and new OS builds simply because they're available. It doesn't work that way when you're dealing with hundreds or thousands of machines.

pssst Another IT Guy...

Yeah I think you are wrong...I think a lot of people are going to buy the iPhone and then tell the IT department to "make it so"....as far as desktops and laptops...I see it happening already....small granted but here and there it is happening.

Boycot all Apple china made products! Free Tibet!!

I have an iPhone, I "had a Treo, I have never owned a Blackberry. I am AMAZED at how easy the iPhone is to use. For shore b-Trips--1-3 days it is basically a laptop replacement. I never said that about my Treo, which compared to the iPhone just looks, feels and acts really ...uh OLD! Enterprise "should" jump on the iPhone and eventually the Mac laptops and desktops...they just work better. If the IT department can't figure it out well, fire them and hire somebody who can. It isn't that tough.

@Another IT Guy

Careful. Your fear is beginning to show. Nothing you or I think or say (preach) is going to change the inevitable. All of those that use any common sense know it.

"businesses have zero interest in buying new hardware and new OS builds"

But do they not have a huge interest in cost of ownership and cost cutting? Can you say smaller IT staff?

I'm one IT Guy that is moving forward while the pace is still controllable.

Another "IT Guy"

Apr 07, 08 - 12:55 pm Comment from: Spark

Could Apple be working quietly with MS to develop an OS X native version of Exchange? That could certainly eliminate one hurdle for seeing Macs in the Enterprise.

re: "Boycot all Apple china made products! Free Tibet!!"

I absolutely agree with the Free Tibet part.

Rich Apple Guy refers to "the expensed associated with training people and purchasing new equipment" as a disincentive to migrating to Mac. But that's simply wrong. I supported desktops and servers as we moved from DOS to Windows 3.1, to NT 3.5, to NT 4.0, to Windows 2000, to XP. My colleagues in Development were "retrained" as they moved from Oracle on Sun to .Net on SQL Server. (I could only offer my condolences.) Migrations and retraining are a fact of life. A move to Mac would be no different, except the end result would be better.

Apr 07, 08 - 01:38 pm Comment from: standardmess

@Spark

You may be on to something. I'm more inclined, though, to believe we'll find Exchange integrated into the Apple Mail program. They've already licensed ActiveSync for the iPhone, after all.

I'm a Microsoft .NET developer, and I just bought my first mac ever (macbook) to write iPhone software. But all my buddies are way more interested in windows mobile due to it's windows similarities (despite how terrible it is, it's just easier for them to learn) or android (which will cover a lot more carriers, phone manufacturers, phone models, and customers - with greater earning potential).

As for throwing microsoft out of the workplace, it's never going to happen. We have 15 year old custom written applications up to applications written last week. It would take decades to throw all that away and replace them with cocoa applications for macs.

Maybe we could incorporate macs into the workplace for sure (although we don't now). But as for getting rid of microsoft, go back to the real world.

The IT department will be developing programs to work on the iPhone because they will have to. The boss will saw, "Make it so".

What you all are missing, is that the same program written to work on the iPhone can then be compiled to work on the Mac OS X computers.

If the iPhone gets in, the Mac gets in. Story is over.

Apr 07, 08 - 02:38 pm Comment from: Spark

@Yo
You are correct, yet Microsoft does not need to be eliminated for Apple to have a greater impact in the Enterprise sector. Your experience and success with iPhone development will make it far easier for you to continue onto Macintosh development; especially when more of the multitouch gestures become incorporated into future OS X builds. If Apple can entice just a fraction of current Windows developers to Mac development a shot, the iPhone SDK will have served a great purpose beyond the original objective.

Apr 07, 08 - 02:44 pm Comment from: Spark

@standardmess
If I am not mistaken, ActiveSync allows Apple to only communicate directly with Exchange Servers. In other words, a company still needs to have an Exchange Server to take advantage of ActiveSync. And Exchange Server only runs on Windows Servers right now. MS may not be inclined to share with Apple what is a lynchpin to their chain of Server and Back Office suites. But to make Mac XServes more attractive, the availability of a native Exchange Server would be a plus. Knowing MS the way we do (i.e. Mac Office Suite), a Mac native version of Exchange would be at least two versions behind their Windows version.

Apr 07, 08 - 02:44 pm Comment from: ElderNorm

@ Another IT guy,

You said, "Apple in the enterprise inevitable? Not even close. "

Read the previous article. It seems that Apple servers work just fine and there is plenty of software out there to allow them to work in mixed environments.

"They don't have the infrastructure or interest in supporting businesses, not the least of which is because businesses have zero interest in buying new hardware and new OS builds simply because they're available. It doesn't work that way when you're dealing with hundreds or thousands of machines."

Maybe what Apple does not want to deal with is the Enterprise think that says "BUY CHEAP MACHINES and save money" then pay the IT guy over time to keep them running.

Apple expects you to pay more money up front but a lot less money as you use the system (also for less MS licenses $$$$$$$). Those companies that only see cheap machines as being worth the money are not worth bothering with.

Just a thought.

Apr 07, 08 - 02:55 pm Comment from: Denny

Our division accounting department recently informed us that they are going to issue a Blackberry to replace our cell phones. I am requesting that I keep my iPhone and pay for my own cell expenses. they don't like it but they can't justify why I should use their phone other than to access corporate email during the day but I can do that from my home desktop at night.

It's the accounting people who don't understand. They don't like change.

Clearly, licensing ActiveSync indicates a more enterprise-friendly Apple. But why should the proliferation of iPhones have any impact on the enterprise desktop environment?

iPhone 2.0 will affect the mobile wares. but as for the hardware stuff, Apple is not looking to jump all in on the enterprise iron. It will have an interesting affect on what IT people & execs may use at their respective homes.

the halo affect will be towards consumer purchases versus business.

I had a problem with Mail on Tiger Server some time ago. I called Apple tech support and spoke to the only server level tech support person who was on duty, worldwide, at that time of the day (it was the evening in Australia). At first he put me off, telling me this was going to be chargeable - when i insisted that i had to resolve this issue as my mail server was down and would not come up, he told me that he only knew the GUI.

Much to his relief, I then solved the problem myself - it was a bug in the GUI which caused the underlying parameter files to become corrupt.

Flakey software and non existent support is not what any level of business expects. Enterprise penetration, in any meaningful way, is some way off for Apple.

Nobody got fired for buying IBM, er...

Apr 07, 08 - 09:32 pm Comment from: MobileAdmin

I think some of my fellow mac users are new to mac or just walking off a cliff blindly.

The IT world at this moment is driven by cost. Everything is scaled to be low cost (at least in fortune 100 world), why would any CIO approve a budget to get a bunch of mac's when a pc box can be had for last I knew $500-600 dollars? It's economics. Out of the 6,000 something pc's & laptops in our office I can think of maybe 20 mac users and 19 of them are in the marketing / graphic department. The other one is a Dual G4 I rescued from the trash heap and keep around to test entourage against Exchange and other functionality as 3-4 years ago the executive set started asking about the Imac's and their kids all had ipods. I think Apple has built a nice "lifestyle" way about computing but many of those same things won't survive corporate world or translate into business drivers. Now if they could make a bare bones G5 for under a grand .. might get some heads turning.

The other IT comment on here is I know true, we have hundreds of home grown applications that would take years and millions to recode to run on a mac, no CIO is going to walk that plank.

Iphone 2.0 has some serious work to prove itself, I've used every new mobile device the past 10 years and including ActiveSync doesn't mean anything other then yes you meet basic Exchange security now.

I think Apple's done some great things re-inventing their product line, it's light years beyond the old mac iifx and iie I used in the past through my current G5 and Imac.

Apple needs to dedicate itself to corporate IT and compete with Dell and IBM for market share and I don't see that happening. But who knows maybe later this year when we have a few Iphones Apple will be making cold calls to companies.

In 20+ years in IT I can't recall ever meeting a Apple Sales Rep ...

If you have an IT guy that needs to be Microsoft certified to get his job, how well do you think the iPhone will be allowed into this Microsoft-oriented enterprise system? Either iPhone 2.0 or it's upgraded OS has got to make it easy for these people to see the light. It's got to be pretty damned painless to welcome iPhones in.

Apple needs to work on their technical support, especially across platforms. Listen to the Windows Switchers as they gripe about Apple support. The same with the iPhone. I hope that Apple gears up for this.

I can decide. I am the Graphic Design manager at a prestigious company. I wanted an xServe for my group and guess what? I got a new xServe and I am going to JAM it into out network! IT guys think they rule, but I think the user will win this particular battle.