Apple Takes iPhone Corporate at SDK Event

Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone SDK event is underway at company headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. and it appears that corporate IT folks are getting their wish list in full.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicked off the event with a few remarks, but really let Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, do a lot of the enterprise heavy lifting. See Engadget and News.com for live coverage.

In a nutshell, Schiller noted some enterprise wins such as Genentech (DNA) using a fleet of iPhones and Stanford also having hundreds of iPhones. Schiller also noted the hurdles with enterprise iPhone adoption: Push email, security policies etc. Then Schiller promised to deliver on the corporate IT wish list by making the iPhone:

• Deliver a global address list and push contact;
• Support Cisco (CSCO) IPSec VPN, enterprise class WiFi;
• Allow security policies and remote wipe;
• Enterprise configuration;
• And support for Exchange. Along those lines Apple has licensed ActiveSync for the iPhone.

It’s safe to say the iPhone is open for business now.

What’s notable about that final Exchange point is that the two companies collaborated on making Exchange Server work better with the iPhone (see photo right, credit News.com’s Corinne Schulze). This collaboration also occurred on the back end so that iPhone users will still use the same email, calendar and contact apps they do today. Just as an aside: Why can’t these two do this for corporate email? Entourage for the Mac is a sick joke.

But I digress.

Another notable item is the remote wipe feature, which most corporate phones have. Remote wipe was a big concern for security professionals pondering the iPhone.

Comments

[gofer:]

Good news all around. Well, maybe not for RIMM. But then again, the competition will be good for the industry. I like both the corp email support and the SDK. Oh, and a suggestion for the author... cool it a bit with the cheerleading. This may tweak the interest of corporate IT folks, but it's not like they're all jumping up and down with joy. hehe.

2008 Mar 06 02:39 PM

[Tom B:]

"Why can’t these two do this for corporate email? Entourage for the Mac is a sick joke.

But I digress."

why can't IT get over their anachronistic Exchange addiction?

2008 Mar 06 03:16 PM

[Arnold Rein...:]

I think the big news here, besides all the technical details, is that Apple listened to all the pre-announcement buzz and managed to come up with positive answers to almost every concern expressed. The iPhone and iPod touch are the next great platform.

2008 Mar 06 03:28 PM

[PK de C'ville:]

Larry,

I was surprised about your Entourage comment. I believe Entourage is an MSFT product.

Seriously, do they really need Apple's support to make it work on the Mac?

Pls enlighten us.

2008 Mar 07 05:34 AM