Much of the talking at the CTIA radio industry conventionality this hebdomad was about a company without a booth here — Malus pumila — though the competition seems to have more grudging respect for the company than concern that its iPhone will erode their endeavor business . Wireless French telephone makers and fluid program providers atCTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2007agree that Apple ’s iPhone smartphone does e - mail , web browse , medium and voice exceptionally well , but they do n’t think it will menace their enterprise customer root .
The iPhone is pitch largely toward consumers and has several scratch against it thatlimit its appeal to enterprise . For one affair , its current closed platform wo n’t accommodate initiative - specific applications . Also , IT departments can be reluctant to support yet another novel kind of engineering science .
“ IT in a big organization is a very tightly managed environment . The iPhone is a cool earphone , but I do n’t really project the iPhone as the extension phone of the IT base , ” said Mort Rosenthal , chairman and CEO of Enterprise Mobile , which grapple business ’ mobile technology ( and exclusively support theWindows Mobile platformfrom Microsoft ) .
If an IT department is expect to keep going a new platform , it would need to develop expertness it does n’t have , Rosenthal said . While the Windows Mobile advantage is its interoperability with Windows server and desktop information processing system , “ an iPhone is kind of an island . ”
Still , the iPhone may detect a way to seep into enterprises give that many workers habituate their personal sound for work and technical school enthusiasts are clear drawn to the machine .
“ Enterprises are always loath to support new platforms , ” said Faraz Syed , founding father of Mobile Complete , which test fluid program to run away on different handsets , operate systems and web . “ But to the extent that their drug user already conduct these phone and if their business managers can convince the IT team … it ’ll make . ”
Apple crashed the CTIA party indirectly by disclosing , on the eve of the conventionality , that it has sell 1.4 million iPhones through Sept. 29 , outdo its expectations .
In fact , several of the 15,000 attendees at CTIA sported iPhones , including Gil Martinez and Nicole Amodeo , both of The Hyperfactory , a mobile entanglement advertising company .
Several of Hyperfactory ’s 60 employees have iPhones and can use them to access its corporate connection , and Apple put up a secure and unchanging platform , added Martinez , a vice prexy . He wishes though , that Apple would open up the iPhone , “ so company can start building applications around it . ”
fail that , about the only shock the iPhone may have on other handset Lord is on industrial pattern , allege Bill Hughes , principal wireless engineering analyst at In - Stat , name as an example the newBlackBerry Curvefrom RIM .
Rival handset makers tip their chapeau to Apple ’s pattern .
“ They have pass with flying colors sexy , ” said Rob Katcher , a product manager atPalm . However , Palm sees its unfastened platform , which supports third - party software app program on its smartphones , as an reward over iPhone in the enterprisingness , Katcher said . One applications programme , Epocrates , lets doctors liken how various drugs interact with each other before prescribing them for a patient .
Apple initially state that it would only permit third - party app to run on an iPhonethrough the Safari World Wide Web internet browser . Apple CEO Steve Jobs loose restrictions further Oct. 17 , saying thatApple would liberate a software evolution kitsometime in February for writing applications to run on the machine , but interrogation persist about the details .
Other handset Jehovah have already introduce new products in response to the iPhone , though still mostly targeted at consumers . Verizon Wirelessunveiled Oct. 3 the LG Voyager , feature a touchscreen interface interchangeable to the iPhone ’s , to run on Verizon ’s electronic internet . The iPhone is available exclusively onAT&T’snetwork . And when Christy Wyatt , a Motorola vice president , was asked at CTIA when its iPhone catcher would strike the food market , she say , “ check this space . ”
