Will a Lack of Corporate Support be the iPhone's Downfall? Don't Bet on It

“The business of America is business.” -- Calvin Coolidge

A U.S. President uttered those words back in 1925, and even today they’re as true as ever. Business is indeed the overall engine powering the economy and corporate spending often plays a powerful role in the success or failure of many newly launched products – even in this consumer driven era.

But not always.

One product that’s virtually dominated the news headlines this year has been the ultra-chic cell phone, browser, music, email device we know as the Apple (AAPL) iPhone. Non-stop media coverage (and a host of ChangeWave surveys: see Feb, Apr, Jun, Jul, Aug) have aptly documented the tremendous impact Steve Jobs and company have been having on the cellular space – along with the iPhone’s remarkable popularity among consumers.

But what about corporate cell phone users?

Are corporate IT departments going to embrace the iPhone like consumers? Or is a lack of corporate support potentially the iPhone’s Achilles' heel?

To get a sense of whether – and to what degree – corporate IT departments will support the iPhone we turned to the members of our ChangeWave Alliance.

In an end-of-July survey we asked 792 Alliance corporate IT professionals to tell us about their company’s plans regarding the iPhone. Here’s what we found.

Corporate Email Access for the iPhone

To find out about current corporate policies, we asked respondents if their company was supporting or rejecting corporate email access for the iPhone.

Only 7% of respondents said their company was currently supporting corporate email access for the iPhone. Another 18% said their company was rejecting it, while 40% said their company had yet to make a decision regarding their iPhone support.

But when we looked ahead at future plans for giving employees corporate email access via the iPhone, a far more negative iPhone picture emerges. When forced to choose between a straight “Yes” or “No” response, respondents said their companies were leaning against giving employees access to corporate email from an iPhone by a 9-to-1 margin (64% “No” vs. 7% “Yes”).

iPhone Support vs. Non-Support

In a follow-up question, we asked those who said their company planned to give corporate email support for the iPhone to tell us why.

“Efficiency” and “productivity” were the top reasons cited.

As Alliance Member JLE0128 writes, “We allow as much freedom of choice as possible.” Respondent GGE56142 adds, “We already allow IMAP so the iPhone is no different.” JAM95295 concurs, saying his “IT guys do not see this as much of a problem.”

In an acknowledgement of the huge potential demand, JBO0138 writes “The iPhone is too unique and usage will become quite widespread, therefore we’ll have to allow email access.”

We also asked respondents who said their company isn’t planning to give employees corporate email access from an iPhone to tell us why not. Here are the top corporate reasons given for non-support:

But what – if anything – would it take to change corporate minds?

Respondents expressed a general wait-and-see attitude regarding iPhone adoption. Better security, lower iPhone costs, greater software compatibility, and availability from other service providers were all cited as key issues that would impact their company’s decision going forward.

MIK85083 writes, “We have tested the iPhone and it does not meet our corporate security requirements.” PJB04443 adds, “Company security has found holes in the iPhone and no business information is authorized to go over the iPhone until resolved.”

Regarding cost, JOL53297 writes, “The iPhone needs to be cost competitive with other Blackberry-type phones.” And MSA61034 adds, “It’s too expensive and unproven at this time.” (Note that this survey was completed before the latest $200 price cut).

But for many respondents it’s a matter of competitive choices and service providers. SIL94361 writes, “We use RIM’s BlackBerry and find it to be a great service. Apple depends on a carrier (AT&T) that is not as good as we need. Besides, we need to see additional real benefits (savings and better service) to switch.”

DTI6499 adds, “We have already invested in Blackberry and our service provider does not support the iPhone. We are not looking to change providers.” POL83507 concurs, “Blackberry is the proven standard and of all our users are trained and familiar with it. The iPhone will be seen as a trendy device and not a business tool. Perhaps in a year or two that could change.”

An Achilles' Heel?

Perhaps the corporate winds will change regarding the iPhone – perhaps they won’t.

Right now you could argue the lack of corporate acceptance might one day constitute an iPhone Achilles' heel.

Certainly these results can be seen as temporary good news for Research and Motion (RIMM), the 800 lb. gorilla of the corporate smart phone market. They have little to worry about in terms of corporate competition from Steve Jobs in the short term.

But this is Apple we’re talking about. And therefore it’s a very good bet that a corporate iPhone version is already on the drawing board – and someday soon it may mitigate many if not all of the corporate concerns raised in this survey.

Most of all, the historic and overwhelmingly positive response to the iPhone among consumers makes the current less-than-positive corporate findings of little concern to Apple shareholders – at least for now.

We conclude the survey findings have not uncovered a worm. Do not bet against the Apple.

Paul Carton co-wrote this article.

--------------------------------------------------------- This article summarizes the results of a recent ChangeWave Alliance survey. The Alliance is a research network of 11,000 business, technology and medical professionals who spend their everyday lives working on the front line of technological change. For more info on the ChangeWave Alliance, or if you are interested in joining, please click here.

Comments

[Tom B]

Corporate IT is often the "Department of No". I think, in this case, they'll have to buckle. IMAP is pretty easy to set up. Outlook Web Access is also easy to enable.

[Jon T]

When Leopard comes out in October many of those reasons will go out the window...

And don't they factor the costs of Blackberry's server access costs?!?!