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WSJ Investigation Contradicts Forrester iPhone Report

On Thursday, Forrester Research published a report that outlined the top ten reasons why IT departments won't support the iPhone. So Ben Worthen at the Wall Street Journal sat down and actually spoke with an executive whose account managers were, in fact, putting the iPhone to good use. None of those top ten reasons really had any serious business impact, according to the WSJ story on Friday.

The Wall Street Journal's Ben Worthen sat down with Mark Goble, executive vice president at Goble & Associates, a healthcare advertising company, and discussed every item on the Forrester list to see if it was really a factor.

"Over the summer, Goble bought iPhones for all of his company’s 20 or so account managers. Previously these managers used a range of devices, including BlackBerrys and Treos. The short version: Goble says the iPhone is by far the best device he’s ever used, his staff is more productive, and his tech department is surprised at how the iPhones are to manage," Mr. Worthen wrote.

One by one, based on practical experience in every day use, the Forrester list of objections melted away. A sampling follows:

Item #1. "Other smartphones can check for new emails every minute, but the iPhone only checks every 15 minutes. Goble can see how minutes might matter to some businesses, but in his experience, it’s been a non issue," according to the WSJ report.

Item #4. "A lost iPhone can’t be erased via remote. Goble acknowledges this is a problem, but says there’s a backup plan in place: If an iPhone is lost, the tech department will disable the phone owner’s accounts. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s good enough."

Item #9. "The iPhone doesn’t have a removable battery. This never crossed Goble’s mind. When pressed, he asked us how many spare batteries we carried around for our BlackBerry," Mr. Worthen wrote.

iPO notes that the list of Forrester items, when examined in the light of people actually using the iPhone in the real world showed how businessmen can get tied up in checklists instead of using what they have to good and creative advantage. In that sense, the Wall Street Journal did their homework while Forrester simply published a list.

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brett_x said:

member since 24 Jan 2006 with 322 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

It's a bit weak. Sorry. But the "investigation" was with only one company who is already using iPhones. That's like asking someone who just switched to MS Servers how well they like them. They'll likely find any reason to dismiss the criticisms to protect their own ego / decision making.

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vasic said:

member since 09 Aug 2005 with 279 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

The WSJ story may be weak if represented as some research/study/survey, but the individual points in there still stand (push e-mail, battery, etc.).

The Forrester piece has very specific use. It is designed for those IT departments that don't want to change, no matter what. Rather than having to dig around, do research and come up with plausible excuses for the iPhone ban, Forrester provided them a neat, simple, reasonably effective and relatively convincing list. It is one-size-fits-all list and will probably work with any technologically uneducated CEO/President/Director/Owner/General Manager.

Of course, we all know the list is easily debunkable and even though Apple explicitly refuses to sell to the enterprise, nothing prevents enterprise to individually, privately buy and then deploy the devices.

Just like before, when nobody in the IT industry got fired for buying IBM, and then nobody got fired for buying Microsoft, same logic applies these days for buying BlackBerry. Yet none of that matters when critical mass of people begins to make demands.

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