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So Microsoft is out there saying that the iPhone is useless and irrelevant to business or lacks business savvy. Maybe they need to be more clear and argue that the iPhone is irrelevant to the enterprise. I can buy that argument, but business in general, especially small business? I don’t and can’t buy that argument. My stance is that the iPhone is the best small business phone out there. The reason: It’s flipping easy to use! Now what does that have to do with small business users? Everything. If you are in business, you need to adopt things that have a short learning curve (we learn this lesson everyday), because you just don’t have much time to learn stuff. The beauty of the iPhone is that is presents to you just the interface you need when you need it. And because the interface is dynamic, the iPhone can take up the whole screen when you are doing that one thing. Microsoft keeps raising two arguments:
The one thing that they seem to forget is that the iPhone has the multi-tasking Mac OS X at its core. Mac OS X already trumps Microsoft’s Desktop OS, never mind their mobile OS. You can already read MS Word documents with Mac OS X out of the box using TextEdit. As a developer, I can tell you the .doc reading capabilities are right in Cocoa. You can open PowerPoint documents in Keynote and I’m sure Apple has something up their sleeve for Excel documents. We also know that many of the frameworks used on Mac OS X are also on the iPhone. It’s easy to see that Quartz, WebKit, CoreAnimation (and thus CoreFoundation) are there. I would also venture to say that portions of Cocoa (with a variant of the AppKit) and other frameworks are there as well (I doubt Apple would write apps for iPhone in Carbon or some other unknown GUI framework). So it is not an issue of capabilities – the iPhone OS is plenty capable. I think it’s a matter of timing. Apple is releasing the most powerful OS a mobile device has ever seen. That in itself is a major challenge, never mind dealing with developer kits and whatnot. Let them get the basics right first. Strategically, I think Apple is doing it right. They are making it easier to use and more appealing to the masses. They are specifically veering away from the enterprise market (for now) because addressing that market makes things more complicated and unappealing to the masses. Besides, the enterprise market is not one of Apple’s core strengths, but the small business market is a different story. And we all know that there are more consumers and small business users than there are enterprise users. The iPhone has everything that a small business needs and if you really need to read a Word or Excel document, you’ll just ask the sender to send you a PDF version. When the time is right and the economics make sense, I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts that Apple will have a process of getting third party apps on the iPhone. So again – why is the iPhone is the most important small business phone? Because more business users will use it because they want to use it, instead of being forced to use it. While I don’t track how many people make inquiries about new, upcoming phones. 1 million inquiries seems like a lot. Microsoft must be worried about Apple delivering a better OS on a device than they can on a desktop, otherwise why bother with all the FUD?
Until next time… |
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iPhone, I’ll say it again – the best business phone out there.
April 20, 2007 on 12:14 pm | AJ
J. Scott Anderson says:
If we are raising the specter of FUD, then perhaps the market should be asking Microsoft why they think that the iPhone cannot open Office documents? I thought Microsoft had been claiming that they would be providing and supporting open document formats that anyone can open. Are they thinking about not doing this now? That will come as big news to many people and organizations–some of them regulatory bodies.
So the question here is what does Microsoft know that they are not telling us? Or, perhaps this is just a case of a loose canon at Microsoft that will shortly be silenced for being an ignorant and arrogant mistake in their ranks. Neither looks good to me.
AJ says:
It’s not just that one loose cannon. Ballmer and Gates both made similar comments recently.
Andy says:
Yes – unfortunately for Microsoft (and everyone else) the loose cannons are running the company !
Vicky Chan says:
Convincing counter arguments on the third party programs issue and the MS Office issue. I still need to see the iPhone released and reviewed by everyone, and possibly wait a few months before I can really decide on whether the iPhone is the smart phone for me.
http://t1resource.blogspot.com
OM says:
I don’t even want to install MS Office on it anyway, that’s what Google App’s is for. It’s all there, storage included, I can log in from anywhere…including the iPhone. I think our friends at Microsoft are forgetting that Office isn’t the only game in town.
AJ says:
Indeed OM, I was just talking to Rob Mead over at Tech.co.uk and mentioned to him that I barely get office documents now. There are just a few companies we deal with that send them to me. Most of the time, I use TextEdit to quickly review the contents before I even launch Word. Excel is the only holdout and I use Word when I need to edit a document “track changes”.
Most of the documents I get are either PDF, HTML, an image format, or a link to a wiki page (HTML).
The Mac Sucks! says:
You’ve GOT to be kidding me! The iPhone’s not available. No one knows if it’s reliable, if coverage will be good, if the screen will scratch up and become unreadable, if the Internet access will be truly usable (Safari sucks, after all), and you’re already proclaiming it the best business phone “out there”. Out where? Vaporwareland? OS X better on the iPhone than Windows on any platform? Geez. What’s Apple paying you for this ad? Did you notice they had to delay OS X Leopard because of problems with the iPhone software/OS? Does that sound like stable, solid software? I’ve yet to find a bug in Windows XP or Vista, but in March I not only found but reported to Apple 28 bugs in Mac OS X – and I don’t even use OS X that much! What Microsoft says is absolutely correct. Apple itself has said that the iPhone won’t permit third-party software to run on it. Thus, Microsoft’s statement isn’t “FUD” because it’s “FACT”. Will the iPhone read Office documents? I didn’t see anything in any of the demos that indicates the iPhone will include ANY document-reading capabilities. Even if it does, it won’t be a real Microsoft product reading real Office documents, but a pale Apple imitation by definition. iPhone, I’ll say it again, more overhyped, overpriced, buggy crap from Apple.
AJ says:
Well \”The Mac Sucks!\”, I don\’t agree with you, but you are certainly entitled to your opinion.
BoC says:
When at the table, bet with the winner. I don’t see any new products from MS taking the U.S. or the world by storm. Home enteretainment, Zune, Gaming, or whatever from M.S. has been a bust financially.
Ballmer would be better if he used his skills as a lion tamer, where FUD & Chair tossing are #1 requirements to keep your job.
Don’t bet against the guys with the winning hands.
DV says:
I agree on the iPhone no being a business device. A very high porcentage of any size business use Office. If there is no Office support, how are you going to open your business documents. and other reason is the support for MS Exchange. How are going to synchronize? IMAP? IMAP synchronize email. what about contacts, calendars, etc? other than that, the iPhone will be a great phone (except for many business). My two cents…
AJ says:
DV, If you look at Steve’s keynote (posted on the Apple site), everything is there – IMAP email (even push email from Yahoo!), calendar and contact synching and more. The only unknown thing is Office documents and no connection to MS Exchange. I think most small business veer away from MS Exchange, so I don’t think this is such a big deal. Most Mac based small business have learn do to without it. In fact, we (Marketcircle) say that with Daylite and a Mail Server, you’ll have the most commonly used features in Exchange and Outlook covered.
My argument is that when the timing is right, Apple will release tools to read Office documents.
DV says:
AJ, you said that with Dalite and a some mail server you have the Exchange and Outlook features covered. Does it includes sync with with the iPhone? BTW, have you ever heard of Microsoft Small Busines Server? it includes Exchange 2003 and many of my customers have it sync with Windows Mobile 5 devices (Blackjack and Treo’s). And I’m speaking of small business. IMO, we can’t underestimate SMB’s and the need to sync their devices with the office (or Exchange server) for email, contacts and appoinments. Today, Exchange is not for medium or large busines. Small business have it too. One more thing, I never mentioned Outlook, becuase WM5 connects and synchronize directly with Exchange. No Outlook needed.
macncheeze says:
What small business uses Exchange? That POS e-mail system is only geared for the enterprise, not SMB (at least none that I know of)… There are a lot of stupid people in corporate IT depts that blindly follow MS, but I can’t imagine a SMB wanting a proprietary e-mail system like Exchange.
Marketcircle Blog » iPhone to eventually allow third party apps says:
[...] So you don’t have to take it from me. You’ve now heard it from the horse’s mouth. [...]
Tom says:
The software argument is less and less important, because of web apps. Google has presented its new technology to use google apps offline. The iphone has a fully capable web browser. So where’s the problem wiith apps?
Marketcircle Blog » Vindication - iPhone to read Word and Excel files says:
[...] A short while back, there was all kinds of noise about iPhone’s inability to read Word and Excel files. Sure enough – it can! [...]
Matt says:
STUPID!!!
What kind of business phones is this??? The kind that can’t be activated through a business. That’s right, Apple and AT&T will not allow business clients to activate the iPhone, you have to switch to a personal account. Does this mean that employees of Apple cannot have a company phone??? Not even their company’s phone??? Corporations Suck!