back to article Gartner reaps iPhone backlash after making business case

Analyst firm Gartner stuck its neck out in a raw bid for fame this week by writing to every comment-writer and saying: "Quote us!" - and then going on to slam the iPhone for not being a business tool. Quoting Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney saying: "This is basically a cellular iPod with some other capabilities, and it's important …

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  1. Rob

    Why can't I...

    .... talk shit like these analysts and get paid for it :(

    Someone point me in the direction of a job advert (and no I don't want the one entitled IT government consultant).

  2. Nick Palmer

    Weintraub's a jackass...

    Sure, it might offer email, but can it offer ENTERPRISE email, i.e. talk to a corporate mail server in anything other than POP3 or IMAP? No? Bye. Hell, I've got a Samsung E720 that can handle email on that basis, but I wouldn't call it a corporate smartphone. Can it do company address list lookups? No? Bye. Hell, we just rejected the Nokia E-series which CAN talk to a number of corporate mail servers on that feature alone. It has a phone book? Gosh...there's an innovation and a half... And it can send SMS messages? Wow, name me another phone that can do that...oh...they all can? It has a web browser? What, you mean like Nokias do? Like Windows-based phones do? It has a calendar - just like my E720, then...

    As for telling my CEO that he can have a phone which looks pretty and plays choons, or one which still looks pretty, can play choons if he insists, but more importantly will handle his corporate mail, calendar and contacts properly I suggest Weintraub try selling my CEO on the former, but only if I get to sell tickets to the event. People always like to see blood, right?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I think they're missing the point...

    They are being critical of the business merits of something that was designed as a consumer product.

    AT&T even state in their online FAQ as much - e.g. would you like it on a business plan? Look what AT&T Say about what kind of account you need to use the iPhone:

    ----------------------------------

    Q. Are business customers eligible for discounts?

    A. No. iPhone service is available only to consumer accounts. iPhone and associated wireless service are not eligible for corporate discounts.

    ----------------------------------

    Notice that? only usable on a CONSUMER account - what do you think that says about the intended audience?

    Both Apple and AT&T State its a consumer device, designed as a consumer device, and now suddenly all these analysts are complaining about it's business merits...

    Now I understand that many business users would like to use this - it sure has the potential to be a very sexy business phone - but the fact remains thats not what its been designed for, so saying its crap because it doesnt do something its not designed for is quite stupid in my eyes.

    It's like buying a laptop and then moaning that while its all very nice and thin and light with a nice screen... it just won't live up to the needs of businesses who need the processing power of a super computer - even though the manufacturer never claimed it would provide such.

    The real complaint here is that while Apple designed this as a purely consumer device, they did such a good job that it's VERY close to being a corporate class device also - just missing a few small essential features... and those remaining features seem so simple and possible in the context of the device that people wonder why they are not there.... and thats a logical question... submit your suggestions to apple and maybe next time they'll design something with business in mind - for now this is effectively the latest iPod - a consumer device through and through.

  4. Dan

    I don't want one

    Apple is a load of poncey nonsense. QUOTE ME.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Consumer toy

    Shurely shome mishtake? : you try telling your Telecoms manager you'd like a 600 dollar phone because it can send email/SMS/web browse/has address book and then try and not to get him to show you a 100 dollar Nokia than has the same features. There is no doubt iPhone is a consumer toy aimed at yuppies. There can also be no doubt that Jackie Fenn's crap about about how business users really do need another toy sounds more like pseudo management speak whereby middle managers looking to have their lifestyle subsidised in trying to talk their companies into buying them toys they really don't need. Where I work we have a whole graveyard of laptops, PDAs, GPS, smart phones and Blackberrys all bought on that premise and quickly jettisoned when their "coolness" factor wears off.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    smartphone...bah

    An iPod with cellphone functionality wrapped around it is the perfect way to describe this overpriced trinket. Everyone's lauding how Apple has come up with this amazing handset, when companies like Nokia and Sony Ericsson have been providing handsets that offer all that functionality (sans the touch screen) for years.

    HTC has had a phone with the touchscreen on the market for a few months now.

    It will be interesting to see how all those features play out as far as battery life when the phone has to deal with less than preferable signal strength and a high volume of voice traffic. And we've yet to see if the new and improved screen material will be more scratch resistant than the Nano.

  7. Chris Cooke

    Only $600?

    If $600 is viewed as too pricey, just wait until they hit the UK market at twice that price. I think the must-have frenzy is going to be fairly short-lived unless they make it cheaper.

  8. g lane

    What is the iPhone

    The iPhone is Apples iPod killer!

    Apple knows that MP3 player hardwaee, while still a money maker, is a business that is rapidly becoming a low margin one dominated by non-name companies from Asia.

    So what to do?

    Obviously you create something that is an iPod plus a cellphone. At the very worst it means one less box to carry around; at best it's a brand new market where you can sell a new unit to everybody who already has an iPod and wasn't thinking of upgrading in the next couple of years.

    The fact that it will probably means the death of Zune is a fortunate side effect.

  9. Gareth

    er.... its a phone with an ipod?

    Why would any business buy its employees an ipod?

    This offering from Apple is for consumers with personal computers, that link to their iTunes, and syncs with their playlists, and plays the movies / music they have bought.

  10. Patrick O'Reilly

    iPhone't too late!

    I already have an enterprise ready phone which better specs than the iPhone and I run a part time business from it.

    Yes the Sony Ericsson K610i has an MP3 player (just like the iPhone), a contact address book (just like the iPhone and any other glorified calculator), it sends SMS & MMS (just like the iPhone), it has an RSS client built in (just like the iPhone), it has push email (just like the iPhone), it has a camera and video (just like the iPhone),it has 3G (unlike the iPhone), I can browse the internet full screen using Opera Mini, I can download or write any J2ME app and run it, and finally all that is a form faactor half the size of the iPhone. Oh and not to forget if my battery runs low I can take it out and put in my spare one (what a novel idea).

    I really am fed up of all this hype around the iPhone, it's no more or less suitable for enterprise than any other consumer phone out there. Apart from the screen rotate feature it has nothing that you couldn't find on a mid-range PDA 3 years ago. My old iPaq h6315 looks just like an iPhone and rans all the same type of applications 3 years ago (and still does).

    Please end the iPhone maddness

  11. Alastair Dodd

    the business needs of smart phone users

    * It is an iPhone, after all, with an emphasis on phone.

    Like all other on the market really.

    * It offers e-mail - currently the most popular means of business communications.

    Like all other on the market really.

    * There's an address/phone book for quick access to contacts.

    Like all other on the market really.

    Like EVERY OTHER MOBILE

    * It offers SMS, a quick way to contact other mobile phone users, and voice mail - both useful to road warriors.

    Like EVERY OTHER MOBILE

    * There's a real Web browser - by far the most underpowered and underappreciated part of a mobile phone.

    * And it contains a slew of corporate-worthy apps, including a calendar, access to maps, spreadsheets and a document reader.

    The ONLY two things out of the list that make it good for Corp users.

    It's too expensive, the data is terribly slow, the wifi is gimped, so is the rest of it really.

    Shut up Wientrab it's not really massively more attractive at all. For a business user really an old Nokia 3200 would do.

    Certainly not as useful as say a blackberry which is half the cost.

  12. Dillon Pyron

    Gartner? Shills for whoever pays them the most.

    Remember, this is the same Gartner that spouted off on the absolute superiority of Windows over Linux in all applications.

    1. Apple’s “rudimentary” experience designing mobile devices specifically for the enterprise.

    Everybody had "rudimentary" experience. Apple has their vast experience in developing products in short order.

    2. Lack of support from mobile management and mobile security software utilities.

    Is there really that much demand? As Apple sees the demand, they'll produce the products. I suspect we'll see Apple making an SDK available before the end of the year.

    3. Lack of compatibility with major business e-mail systems.

    Yes. A major stumbling block. Unless you've tried supporting Exchange in the SMB world.

    \

    4. An operating system not licensed to third-party hardware suppliers, resulting in no backup.

    Not sure I understand exactly what they are saying here. Apple doesn't license for the Mac, but have had no problems with "backup", WTF that means. Does Nokia license to third-party hardware suppliers?

    5. No removable battery, creating the potential for increased support costs.

    Man, that's pissed me off with the iPod, too. OTOH, how long will the battery last? The average life expectancy of a phone before it gets traded for "the next big thing" is a little over two years, at least in the US. That's how long most contracts last.

    6. Only one carrier operator (AT&T Wireless).

    And how many operators carry the Q? How many operators carried the Razr for the first two years?

    7. The high price point, $499 for 4GB or $599 for 8GB.

    The main reason I won't be standing outside my AT&T store this evening. (I also have to work until 6. My customer pays me by the hour.)

    The iPhone has its issues. So does every phone. The iPhone has its pluses. So does every phone. When you see only negatives from a reviewer, look for more reviews. When we lived in Dallas, we used to religiously read the movie reviews of one guy. If he hated a movie, we just had to see it. We were right about 85% of the time.

  13. Ken

    Why the business comments

    Why the comments about business? If anyone remembers, in January Jobs stood on a stage and introduced the iPhone and directly compared it to a BlackBerry, saying, essentially, that no one would need a BlackBerry because the iPhone would do email better than a BB and so much more. So Apple brought the whole corporate suitability discussion on itself, though since then Apple and AT&T have backed off from that claim.

    So the iPhone will likely sell well enough and hit its 10 million units shipped target. Apple will not be a major volume player in mobile overall, and will not be able to match real mobile handset manufacturers in terms of a steady update of new handset models. Expect tweaks to the basic device going forward, but not true innovation such as seen in the Sony Ericsson Walkman line, or the Nokia N-Series or Samsung Ultra handsets. Apple will continue to be its own little world, but its impact on the larger mobile market will be, at best, as an indicator of directions for innovation for the major players in the industry.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Are people in Europe/UK more patient than in the US????

    Ok, several people are posting about their phones which do as much or more than the iPhone. I've looked up a couple of the models and they don't even have a keyboard. Maybe the K610i has a touchscreen for a virtual keyboard and I'm not seeing it or something but if not...

    Do you really type emails out on a numeric keypad? And I hear SMS is more popular in Europe. Anyone who uses SMS has a full or virtual keyboard right like on a Treo or iPhone? You don't take the time to key it in on a 10 digit keypad right? Please tell me you don't do that! I don't have the time for that. Maybe that's why SMS isn't as popular here... we are too impatient to key text in on a 10 digit keypad.

    At least the Nokia used to hack in the movie Live Free or Die Hard had a keyboard. Now that looked like an iPhone competitor.

  15. Glenn Amspaugh

    I don't want a phone

    All I want is a mobile web surfing iPod. Or a Newton 3000. Where the hell's the stylus stored on this here iPhono anyways?

  16. Josh

    Any relation to Bill O'Reilly, Patrick?

    "Apart from the screen rotate feature it has nothing that you couldn't find on a mid-range PDA 3 years ago."

    How many PDAs had multi-touch screens 3 years ago?

    Apple haters are hilarious.

  17. E. Peeters

    Are people in Europe more patient?

    Just to answer your question... I have no idea. I don`t consider myself to be a very patient person. However we do type out messages on a numeric keypad. By now a seperate language has developed for this purpose as you may know

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_language.

  18. Michael Corkery

    Are people in Europe more patient?

    I know it's not the same but PTI (Predictive Text Input) must be 6 or 7 years old now, and has improved along the way. A decent phone will allow you to tap out the letter on the corresponding numeric key (with the smaller letters next to the number, simliar to US landline phones) and spells out the word for you. If it's not correct, you tap down and it swaps out alternates. You add words of your own to the dictionary. My Sony ericsson weights words by use, so more popular ones float to the top. It's slightly slower than typing, but really only people with piss poor spelling or low dexterity can't get used to it, so you type pretty fast. You'd be surprised how easy it is.

    But then, we were lucky in Europe in that SMS grew along with our phone use over the last ten years. Some mobile (cell) technologies migrated west to the US later, so you might find it more of an imposition, arriving all at once, when you'd already gotten used to stylus input and blackberry, so it might just be that we've had longer toi get used to it, whereas it would feel more retrograde to you now?

    Just a thought

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