Is the iPhone Apple's "Trojan Horse" into Enterprise IT Departments?

You can bet that Apple wants to move the iphone into the corporate world to compete with the likes of Research in Motion. Their ambitions don't stop there. They now see an opportunity to enter the much sought after world of enterprise computing. They should consider the iphone their "trojan horse" into the corporate IT world.

The business world today is dominated by PCs and Window based applications. Most IT shops have a perception of Apple as being more consumer focused rather that business or enterprise focused. If Apple is successful with getting the iphone in the door it may help the perception of Apple's "enterprise worthiness". If they could do that this it would make IT shops more receptive to other types of Apple hardware.

Recent developments make it clear that Apple is trying to use the iphone to break their consumer focused stereotype. This includes the move to Java to the iphone, and the announcement that the iphone will support Microsoft Outlook.

These moves help the iphone become an open platform that developers can use to target new applications while at the same time help support existing base of mainstream business applications like MS outlook.

Even Gartner has had to backpedal on some recent predictions about the iphone and its ability to penetrate the enterprise world. They've really missed the ball on this one and have completely underestimated the ability of Apple to make inroads into this area with their iphone.

Now the only thing left is trying to convince IT departments that the iPhone is enterprise ready. Changing the minds of some of these "old timer" IT professionals is usually harder than changing the actual underlying technology. With early wins and broad support from executives you should see iphones within most corporate environments within the next 2-5 years.

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Vassilios
Co-Founder
OuterVillage.com
http://outervillage.com

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