iParadise Lost
The trials of a long-term mac user
Thursday 7 August 2008, 6:26 AM
Gartner approves iPhone for limited enterprise use
It appears the Market research firm Gartner is giving a final cautious green light for using the iPhone in big business as it meets it's "appliance-level support status" having rejected the 1.0 2G phone out of the box. The recommendation is a cautious one with a slow and mananged roll out in enterprises. Features in the 2.0 software such as remote wipe have helped this change of heart. But reservations remain such as the phone's reliance on itunes to sync.
(Here I must interject with a strange anomaly if you are looking in say the US iTunes store on your Mac with your iPhone docked and then you remove your iphone go out and decide to get some freebies from say the App store you can't as the iPhone still thinks you are in US mode and bars you from buying stuff as your iTunes account is elsewhere)
In response to Apple's iPhone configuration utility software for businesses the report says "we have discovered that the product works via an unencrypted, distributed XML file which could be changed by the end user, Apple indicates that the profiles can be signed, warning the user of their legitimacy, but the most trusted management tools don't empower the user to make these types of security decisions."
Other key criticisms of the new phone were security centered around firewalls and encryption, no file transfers, lack of cut and paste and issues with Active sync where no record of replied to/forwarded email is recorded (unlike in blackberry land) ann finally two common smart phone problems: the high cost of international data roaming and lack of battery life.
On the plus side the report notes the excellent Appstore, html email client and top notch browsing experience on the IPhone.
So there you have it Apple has joined RIM and Windows Mobile in the enterprise accepted club. More worryingly for Nokia their E class phone have still yet to join as the necessary security features are still not available on these phones.
(Here I must interject with a strange anomaly if you are looking in say the US iTunes store on your Mac with your iPhone docked and then you remove your iphone go out and decide to get some freebies from say the App store you can't as the iPhone still thinks you are in US mode and bars you from buying stuff as your iTunes account is elsewhere)
In response to Apple's iPhone configuration utility software for businesses the report says "we have discovered that the product works via an unencrypted, distributed XML file which could be changed by the end user, Apple indicates that the profiles can be signed, warning the user of their legitimacy, but the most trusted management tools don't empower the user to make these types of security decisions."
Other key criticisms of the new phone were security centered around firewalls and encryption, no file transfers, lack of cut and paste and issues with Active sync where no record of replied to/forwarded email is recorded (unlike in blackberry land) ann finally two common smart phone problems: the high cost of international data roaming and lack of battery life.
On the plus side the report notes the excellent Appstore, html email client and top notch browsing experience on the IPhone.
So there you have it Apple has joined RIM and Windows Mobile in the enterprise accepted club. More worryingly for Nokia their E class phone have still yet to join as the necessary security features are still not available on these phones.
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