News

iPhone Anticipation Starts Corporate Push Back

Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at 2:50 PM - by

Potential iPhone customers have known for a long time that an iPhone won't connect to corporate e-mail servers, such as those that connect to a BlackBerry. However, the keen anticipation of the iPhone has caused some to push back on their IT departments anyway, according to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

The argument by the IT departments is that they don't want additional devices, besides a BlackBerry, connected to their network for security reasons. That would require them to enable IMAP, which they are reluctant to do.

A possibility, in some cases, may be to forward corporate mail to Yahoo e-mail.

It remains to be seen how Apple deals with the emerging issue. "According to a person close to Apple, the company is expected to fight for this market, currently dominated by players like BlackBerry's RIM, Palm Inc. and, increasingly, Nokia Corp. and Motorola," Jessica Vascellaro and Nick Wingfield wrote. "If Apple comes up with an acceptable strategy for integrating with business software systems, many companies might change their tunes."

Despite possible workarounds or Apple modifications, such as a BlackBerry mimic system, many potential customers are still expressing disappointment. The iPod has worked its way into corporate culture, and those who want to simplify their gadget bag are looking forward to the iPhone. Some users plan to ditch their BlackBerry anyway and make the iPhone work for them.

Despite corporate user desires for simplicity, incompatible technologies are an increasing problem for businesses who themselves want to simplify but are nevertheless buffeted by exciting new technologies from many different companies.

Apple is one of those companies hoping that the attraction and buzz for of their iPhone will break down those corporate barriers. Typically, many businesses are taking a wait-and-see approach.

If the iPhone becomes as popular as many expect, both Apple, RIM, and corporate IT departments may be compelled to work out a solution. That's a welcome luxury that the Mac has not had in the past.

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Jun 19, 2007 3:51 pm

Some people think some stuff. Some people do things. Other people do other things. Stuff might happen because of things. Maybe. Maybe not. Things are stuff.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jun 19, 2007 4:19 pm

Well said, Biff. But you forgot, some people are also afraid of things which leads them to do other things. Then, things hit the fan because unintended things happen when we don't do the right thing.

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Tiger said:

member since 17 Jun 2003 with 1011 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Jun 19, 2007 4:22 pm

You said it Biff. Stuff happens.

That said, did you get the feeling that it should have just been written, "blah, blah blah blah, Apple, blah blah blah Blackberry, blah blah blah blah blah iPod, blah blah blah iPhone, blah blah blah"?

If anyone (aka Rob Enderle) thinks iPhone isn't about to make waves in the corporate world, even if that is NOT Apple's target demographic, then this article should just about shut them up for good. Obviously, the iPhone is a big enough threat to warrant this sort of speculative article.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jun 19, 2007 4:30 pm

"A possibility, in some cases, may be to forward corporate mail to Yahoo e-mail."

I don't know a single well-educated IT professional who would consider this a possibility. It presents a very significant security issue, and at every company I've worked setting up an automatic forward of your email to an outside system has been considered a fireable offense.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jun 19, 2007 5:49 pm

OK, forgive me if it's been said, but:

USE. EXCHANGE. WEB. ACCESS.

I've been using exchange web access for over a year on my mac. It's not the ultimate solution, but do you really need full desktop capabilities on your phone? Exchange web access lets you send and receive mail, view contact lists, and check your calendar, tasks, etc. Isn't that enough for the times when you aren't at your desk?

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Bosco said:

member since 03 Jun 2002 with 1001 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Jun 19, 2007 6:08 pm

Guest wrote:
I don't know a single well-educated IT professional who would consider this a possibility. It presents a very significant security issue, and at every company I've worked setting up an automatic forward of your email to an outside system has been considered a fireable offense.

Wow. Talk about what is wrong with IT! My prediction is that the iPhone will be a hit with independent professionals and at smaller firms where IT doesn't run an information gestapo. There is a real business opportunity in outsourcing e-mail for big organizations in a way that meets users needs (whatever they are and however they change) in a friendly way and handles archiving and retrieval issues as required by various regulations.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jun 19, 2007 6:33 pm

Guest wrote:
OK, forgive me if it's been said, but:

USE. EXCHANGE. WEB. ACCESS.

I've been using exchange web access for over a year on my mac. It's not the ultimate solution, but do you really need full desktop capabilities on your phone? Exchange web access lets you send and receive mail, view contact lists, and check your calendar, tasks, etc. Isn't that enough for the times when you aren't at your desk?

That works for on demand, but not push. That's what is so special about BlackBerrys. You have to open a data connection and get online and login in order to do that. It is not the same functionality.

Bosco, it's called security. Perhaps you don't value it, but automatic forwarding of email to an open server like that is a great way for IP to get stolen.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:20 pm

Guest wrote:

Bosco, it's called security. Perhaps you don't value it, but automatic forwarding of email to an open server like that is a great way for IP to get stolen.

So is, um, sending an email with intellectual property, which happens far more often than some hypothetical break-in to Yahoo's server.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:21 pm

Bosco wrote:
Guest wrote:
I don't know a single well-educated IT professional who would consider this a possibility. It presents a very significant security issue, and at every company I've worked setting up an automatic forward of your email to an outside system has been considered a fireable offense.

Wow. Talk about what is wrong with IT! My prediction is that the iPhone will be a hit with independent professionals and at smaller firms where IT doesn't run an information gestapo. There is a real business opportunity in outsourcing e-mail for big organizations in a way that meets users needs (whatever they are and however they change) in a friendly way and handles archiving and retrieval issues as required by various regulations.

Bosco,

There are already companies that do email "outsourcing" as you call it. However, it is done securely and what you describe is not the same as an individual autoforwarding emails to an address outside of the company. Many startups outsource the setup & maintenance of Exchange to a third party, but they still use an @companyname.com email address and emails sent within the company are secure and not transmitted through public email servers. An individual setting up an autoforward rule that forwards emails outside of the company presents a very real security risk. That is what the author of this article was suggesting, not the outsourcing of email server hosting & maintenance.

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jbruni said:

member since 14 Jul 2006 with 105 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:39 pm

I'm not sure what the fear of IMAP is. We use it for corporate email access to avoid the use of a VPN. We do require SSL only.

It seems silly to trust HTTP for email access but not IMAP/SMTP.

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Bosco said:

member since 03 Jun 2002 with 1001 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Jun 19, 2007 8:07 pm

Guest, actually I am very familiar with Exchange server outsourcing, as I am helping a non profit company clean up a disaster resulting from doing just that . In an irony only apparent to the people who have to use the system, making it "secure" made it totally unusable. And unfortunately, this non-profit doesn't have staff on hand to constantly evaluate users' needs and security considerations, and match up the systems.

You know, the thing that really gets me about IT's love affair with Exchange is that in many company settings, it's overkill. Yeah, on paper it is lovely to have e-mail and calendaring all in one central place useful by all the corporate cogs. But when nobody is doing anything but e-mail, what is the point other than to feed IT egos?

But back to the point of the article... Of course, corporate IT isn't going to loosen up over the iPhone unless they have 20 shoved up their asses by their bosses. IT is the enemy. There is a reason you lock up IT people in windowless offices away from customers and mostly out of the way of other workers. Same reason you have exhaust fans in the bathroom. One thing I'm seeing lately from a lot of professionals is business cards with their work and personal e-mail addresses on it. When they give you the card, they just tell you to use the personal address because it works better for them. Go figure.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jun 20, 2007 1:32 am

Guest wrote:

That works for on demand, but not push. That's what is so special about BlackBerrys. You have to open a data connection and get online and login in order to do that. It is not the same functionality.

That's a valid point - but to what extent is push REALLY vital? You still have to CHECK the message (push just means the damn phone vibrates more - I still have to pick it up, look at the screen and decide if I want to unlock it to read the email or not).

To my mind push email is non-critical and over-hyped -- the more valuable asset with Blackberry/BES or Treo/Goodlink is the "If I delete it on the handheld it gets deleted from Exchange" aspect, and that's a given with webmail systems like Exchange Web Access. Just bookmark it or make it the homepage on the phone and you have your crackberry functionality, minus the annoying buzzing.

(By the way, that integration more than the security is why forwarding to a yahoo account won't fly - users dont want to delete mail twice, and if someone is so stupid as to OK forwarding potentially privileged information to an off-site mail service of unkown security the whining "I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVE TO DELETE IT TWICE!" users will kill the idea

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Jun 20, 2007 1:50 am

Anonymous wrote:

That's a valid point - but to what extent is push REALLY vital? You still have to CHECK the message (push just means the damn phone vibrates more - I still have to pick it up, look at the screen and decide if I want to unlock it to read the email or not).

I wonder how many meetings and presentations have been hampered by someone's cel phone or Blackberry going off, even in vibrate mode? Getting a phone call or email while you're trying to sell your company and product/service to a new client would seem to not be a very good idea. Indeed, on the other end, that's what "Hold my calls" was invented for.

I think that I mentioned a while back being appalled by the moron who said that he wouldn't like the iPhone because he'd have to look at the screen to use the virtual keyboard while text-messaging under the table during business meetings.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:28 am

Guest wrote:
Guest wrote:

That works for on demand, but not push. That's what is so special about BlackBerrys. You have to open a data connection and get online and login in order to do that. It is not the same functionality.

That's a valid point - but to what extent is push REALLY vital? You still have to CHECK the message (push just means the damn phone vibrates more - I still have to pick it up, look at the screen and decide if I want to unlock it to read the email or not).

Whether or not you like it, that has been the one feature that contributed to BlackBerry's vast success, and is the one feature that stops many people from considering other PDAs & smartphones. Without push, those steps you list are something you have to do frequently when there is no further news for you. Push means you don't waste your time picking up the phone, connecting to the data network, loading up you browser, connecting exchange web access, entering your credentials, and then finding nothing. Instead, you get a buzz, and click one button, ONLY when you actually have something new to read.

But yes, rationalizing the lack of features in an Apple product is something one must do with every Apple purchase.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Jun 20, 2007 11:22 am

Guest wrote:

[quote="Guest]

That's a valid point - but to what extent is push REALLY vital? You still have to CHECK the message (push just means the damn phone vibrates more - I still have to pick it up, look at the screen and decide if I want to unlock it to read the email or not).

Whether or not you like it, that has been the one feature that contributed to BlackBerry's vast success, and is the one feature that stops many people from considering other PDAs & smartphones.

[/quote]

Actually, the fact that "BlackBerry" is synonymous with "eMail-Enabled Phone Device" stops most people from considering other PDAs & SmartPhones - the "We got there first" effect, same as for the iPod.

Guest wrote:

Without push, those steps you list are something you have to do frequently when there is no further news for you. Push means you don't waste your time picking up the phone, connecting to the data network, loading up you browser, connecting exchange web access, entering your credentials, and then finding nothing. Instead, you get a buzz, and click one button, ONLY when you actually have something new to read.

Define frequently - do you have a compulsion to check your email constantly?

Also, most phones today (and I'm assuming the iPhone will be no exception) acquire an IP when they connect to the carrier's network - they are already "(connected) to the data network" - save your Exchange credentials and make the web access interface your homepage and the only thing you're living without is the buzz...

Guest wrote:
But yes, rationalizing the lack of features in an Apple product is something one must do with every Apple purchase.

The final feature set remains to be seen.

I for one will not consider the iPhone unless it has a working SSH client (the only reason *I* have a BlackBerry at the moment - I'm a working sysadmin and I need access to my machines from the road in emergencies), but at the same time I don't see the lack of push email to be a killer (I'm more concerned with the calendaring functionality than the email to be honest)

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Jun 20, 2007 3:04 pm

Anonymous wrote:

Actually, the fact that "BlackBerry" is synonymous with "eMail-Enabled Phone Device" stops most people from considering other PDAs & SmartPhones - the "We got there first" effect, same as for the iPod.

Except that the iPod was hardly first. There were many music players on the market when the iPod was released. In fact, the conventional wisdom at the time was that Apple had no chance versus the likes of Creative and Rio. What made the iPod so different was the simplicity and the integration with iTunes.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Jun 21, 2007 10:44 am

gslusher wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

Actually, the fact that "BlackBerry" is synonymous with "eMail-Enabled Phone Device" stops most people from considering other PDAs & SmartPhones - the "We got there first" effect, same as for the iPod.

Except that the iPod was hardly first. There were many music players on the market when the iPod was released. In fact, the conventional wisdom at the time was that Apple had no chance versus the likes of Creative and Rio. What made the iPod so different was the simplicity and the integration with iTunes.

What made the iPod different was marketing. The masses didn't even know about those other devices. The first 3 generations of iPods didn't suddently change the face of the market. When the 4th gen came out, along with the new commercials on television, sales took off.

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