Martin Courtney

Writers usually sum up their opinions at the end rather than the beginning of an article, but I thought I’d buck the trend with what I hope is a concise but definitive view of Apple’s iPhone from a business perspective. That way, if you feel you already have all the information you need, you can simply turn the page and move on to another section of the magazine.

So, the iPhone: nice to look at and use, but way too expensive for mass business rollout. Also, plenty of other smartphones on the market do the same things or better for less cost, and without all the multimedia bells and whistles.

The iPhone is tipped to oust the BlackBerry as the mobile gadget to be seen with among the impressionable members of the business community. But style and branding aside, is it really the best choice for corporate email and internet access while on the move?

The fact that it uses Edge rather than faster 3G bandwidth ­ 3G uses too much battery power, according to Steve Jobs ­ suggests that where Wi-Fi is not available, email messages will have trouble getting through.

O2, the carrier with exclusive rights to the iPhone, really shot itself in the foot when it announced that it anticipates Edge coverage will be available to 30 per cent of the UK by the time the iPhone launches here on 9 November. Plenty of potential iPhone buyers, particularly in the business community, are likely to be put off by the prospect of paying so much for a service that will default to slow GPRS data rates in 70 per cent of the country.

The other big question for corporate buyers is back-end integration and synchronisation with existing email systems, particularly Microsoft Exchange.
For the moment, the iPhone relies on web mail like Gmail and Yahoo. Apple has promised support for Exchange, but has not confirmed whether this will provide the same synchronisation services that BlackBerry users currently enjoy.

Price is likely to be the big issue. Even with the cheapest 12-month contract, buyers will be lucky to see change out of £700.

Where the iPhone does triumph is usability. It is just a question of where usability comes in the priority list of corporate buyers ­ usually way behind cost and value for money, in my experience.

None of which will bother those fashion-conscious executives who care more about airline lounge bragging rights than the device’s ability to actually do the job it is supposed to. But it might prove a bone of contention to those on the IT helpdesk who will end up suffering for the iPhone’s shortcomings.