Sun, Jan 14, 2007 22:45 EST

Why The iPhone Is The Single Most Important Thing To Happen To CIOs This Year

Current Rating: Comments: 13

When Apple introduced the iPhone last week my colleague Tom Wailgum wrote that it was a non-issue for CIOs and corporate America. Companies don’t run OS X and so it just doesn’t matter, he said. I don’t think that Tom could have been more wrong. In fact, I think that the iPhone is the single most important thing that will happen to CIOs this year.

The iPhone represents the way people want technology to work. Let’s set aside the coolness factor -- which the iPhone has in spades -- and look solely at its functionality. The iPhone combines music and movies, i.e. the personal, with email and voicemail, i.e. the professional. That’s the way life has been trending; knowledge workers have two identities and they inhabit both 24/7. The iPhone not only recognizes this, but caters to it. The message is clear: if the work and the personal parts of your lives are no longer separate why should the devices that you use in those roles be? That’s why I think that the iPhone is getting so much buzz. It connects with people’s lives in a way corporate IT stopped doing five years ago. I’m in India right now so I can’t tell how it is playing on the streets in the U.S., but here everyone wants one.

The second thing about the iPhone that I think is important is that it takes a unified view of messaging. It displays voicemails visually, essentially treating them like audio emails. It also threads SMS conversations. It essentially incorporates into its design something that people have figured out – communication is communication and should be treated as such.

In short, the iPhone does what the people who work for you want technology to do. Yet most CIOs are going to look at it and have the same reaction Tom did: the iPhone is a consumer tool and so it doesn’t matter to me. In my mind, the iPhone captures in one elegant device (and the CIO community’s response to it) the reason that most business people feel that IT is out of touch. And one more thing. If you think that your company’s employees won’t start using the iPhone in the workplace just because the enterprise doesn’t support OS X you are crazy.

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All Comments Comments

Thu, Jun 14, 2007 8:06 EDT

iPhone would hardly improve enterprise productivity

Posted by: Nuwan Perera
Rating:

I believe if a particular appliance is to be taken seriously as a corporate productivity tool, a QWERTY keyboard is a must. This is one of the reasons why blackberries have become so popular. If you intend to use the phone for email then a virtual keyboard can hardly be easy to use.

Of course the aesthetics of the iPhone are really good and eventually they will be copied by other manufacturers as well.

/Nuwan Perera
http://www.NuwanPerera.com

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Mon, Jun 25, 2007 0:17 EDT

Why The iPhone Is The Single Most Important Thing To Happen To C

Posted by: dasbokzilla
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The WWDC was crap.
There were all kinds of issues with their new site (and they used the dojo js library-- yuck).
They didn't update the Mac Minis or Imacs.
Their App solution for the iPhone was kinda stupid, you have to be online to use the app?

http://www.dvdtoiphoneconverter.org/

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Wed, Jun 13, 2007 13:46 EDT

Why The iPhone Is The Single Most Important Thing To Happen To C

Posted by: Anonymous
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Well first issue is...there is no remote wipe capability. so I phone is really all so secure. Also for us business folks we prefer to use direct push technology. From the things I've read iPhone will not do this either. both of which are key elements for mobile security to the corporate environment. apple and blackberry (RIM) have failed to create products that a CIO would want due to the fact of apple not offering security and speed of emails/alerts. And blackberry has failed due to its overly expensive server and licenses. For those in the corporate world, Windows Mobile 6 is the way to go to save money and keep plenty of usefulness.

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Wed, Jan 17, 2007 10:25 EST

iPhone needs to be better than the others

Posted by: CMS
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Good points in the article, and I think Steve Jobs was correct in his introduction to the iPhone: many people hate their cell phones/PDAs.

I have a Treo 700p and have also had the 600 and 650 models before that. I have had to return two of them and I still am frustrated with the performance and stability of the device at times. For the iPhone to be a hit I think it needs to be not just good, but clearly better than the Treos and Blackberries. Some of this may fall on the carrier as well, but applications need to be stable and fast, and the interface intuitive. I am intrigued by the software-driven interface model rather than the physical buttons, as this opens up far more options for what can be achieved on the device.

Whether the iPhone will deliver on this remains to be seen, but I think Apple will not make a half-hearted entry into this market. Apple's design and engineering strength is apparent when they control both the hardware and software platforms.

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Wed, Jan 17, 2007 10:28 EST

iphone

Posted by: Brian Byrd
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Finally someone else gets it... OSX is steadily making its way into the corporate world. I see it daily that Apple;s innovation will win out and ultimately MS will go the way of Big Blue... just my opinion.

I am disappointed about the cholce of cingular but you have to start somewhere.

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