Gartner has reversed its previous recommendation against the iPhone for business in a new report published on Wednesday. The new, positive recommendation is based on the enterprise features of the iPhone 2.0 software due in June.

In a report obtained by iPO, the iPhone is now recommended for appliance level support, that is, it "permits the iPhone to be used for personal information management [PIM], email, telephony and browsing applications. It also permits the device to be used for other dedicated functions where the software is supplied by a third party, functionality is kept to a restricted set, the software supplier offers support for a backup platform and IT development resources are not needed to program custom code locally residing on the device," Gartner reported.

The new recommendation reverses the one Gartner made to business back in 2007.

"In its initial release, the iPhone was, with few exceptions, an internet tablet with browser-based applications as its main offering, but the release of firmware 2.0 changes that, enabling organisations to develop local code and create applications that do not depend on network capabilities," said Ken Dulaney, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "The iPhone will thus match up initially in several segments against its main smartphone competitors — BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian Series 60."

"By licensing Exchange ActiveSync and exposing its basic security policies, enterprises can provide sufficient security for iPhone during Exchange personal information manager (PIM) and e-mail use," Mr. Dulaney added. "This will open up a huge market for the iPhone, which previously had been stymied by a lack of basic business security and application functionality. However, Apple must widen distribution and of course deliver what they have promised."

The report suggested that IT Managers carefully review the iPhone's management options to understand how they can "control any consumer elements of the platform that may pose a risk."

The report is not unexpected based on all that Apple has announced for enterprise support. However, having the report published and in the hands of IT managers will provide that final Gartner punctuation and offical finding for those IT managers who require one.