Making the iPhone Better for Business

While its new smartphone is gorgeous and innovative, Apple should consider a few tweaks to optimize the iPhone for the corporate world

by Stephen H. Wildstrom

The arrival of the Apple iPhone has been an occasion for both praise of its breakthrough design and skepticism regarding its usefulness for business. Even before the device's June 29 debut in stores, Gartner Group (IT) warned corporations that the use of iPhones for e-mail could create serious security problems. On June 28, employees of the McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP), publisher of BusinessWeek, received official notice that because the iPhone "has been designed mainly for the consumer market and would not work within a corporate computing environment…it cannot be supported."

Beyond its enormous coolness factor, the iPhone is in many ways a significant advance over all the other smartphones on the market. Apple (AAPL) designed it without catering to the extremely conservative tastes of wireless carriers. The result, while far from perfect, is an object of desire that many corporate executives will want to carry instead of their stodgy Research in Motion (RIMM) BlackBerrys or Palm (PALM) Treos.

The iPhone's exterior is responsible for its immediate emotional appeal. It looks beautiful and it feels wonderful in your hand. As has been extensively noted, the iPhone suffers from the choice of AT&T's (T) relatively slow EDGE network. The browser and other Web-based applications, such as Google (GOOG) Maps and YouTube perform extremely well when connected to a Wi-Fi network, but are painful on EDGE. About the only other thing I can criticize about the external design is that, unlike most handsets, it provides no obvious clue how to hold it, making it easy to grip in a way that interferes with the antenna's reception. (Hint: Keep your hand clear of the plastic area at the bottom of the screen when held vertically.)

The Software Side

But Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs is right when he says that what really distinguishes the iPhone from lesser handsets is the software. Yet from the point of view of a business user, that software is both a blessing and a curse.

On one hand, the user interface is a marvel. For example, the ability to expand or shrink a Web page simply by spreading your fingers apart or pinching them together is by far the best solution I have seen to fitting big Web pages on a small screen. Typing with the on-screen keyboard does take getting used to, especially accepting the fact that iPhone's software will correct most of your typos. Once you get the hang of that, it's at least as usable as the little thumb keyboards on other handhelds.

The problem arises with key applications that business users need. Most of these issues have to do with security, but since they are all software related, they are fixable. Here are some shortcomings that Apple needs to address:

Enterprise-Class E-mail

Microsoft (MSFT) Exchange is by far the most widely used corporate mail system, and it is a complex and ornery beast. The iPhone currently offers three potential ways to connect with Exchange mail. But, says Gartner Senior Analyst Ken Dulaney, "all of them are pretty weak."

First, you could use the iPhone's mail program if your company's Exchange server has Internet mail access enabled (most don't). If it does, you'll still need to find a way through the firewall that protects most Exchange servers. In my experience, even if this route is enabled, it is very hard to get it to work reliably. A second route is to use the iPhone's browser and Exchange's Outlook Web access.