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Businesses are gradually getting used to the idea of using iPhones in the enterprise, but Apple has a long way to go.

(Credit: Apple)

Apple has captivated the general public with the iPhone, but has it convinced the business world to take the plunge?

Even after the March preview of the “business-friendly” iPhone 2.0 software for the iPhone released in July, it seems that most iPhones are being purchased by individuals rather than corporations, who still look first at Research In Motion’s BlackBerry when it comes to equipping their workers with mobile computers.

But the iPhone is making a guerrilla attack on the business world, brought into the corporate world by influential executives, CIOs rethinking their approach to deploying technology, and younger workers who move seamlessly between their personal and business lives.

There are several high-profile businesses, such as Genentech and Disney (both with strong ties to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, of course), that have declared their intentions to work with Apple on deploying iPhones inside their corporations. That seems to be having the effect of increasing the overall number of business smartphone users, however, rather than turning the iPhone into any kind of “BlackBerry killer.”

At Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Jobs said 33 percent of the Fortune 500 had participated in Apple’s beta program for the iPhone 2.0 software. But RIM still dominates the market for mobile devices used for business purposes.

According to data from J. Gold Associates released in September, 65.5 percent of North American businesses that deploy mobile computers say they actively support the BlackBerry, compared with 22 percent that support Windows Mobile devices and just over 10 percent that support the iPhone.

There is some overlap in those numbers, represented by companies such as Chicago law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, a participant in Apple’s beta program.

About half of CIO Andy Jurcyzk’s 1,800 employees worldwide use some kind of mobile device, and at the moment, 200 of those people are using the iPhone 3G. Sonnenschein’s employees who are deemed worthy of mobile computers can get the company to buy them a new mobile device every 24 months–provided that AT&T carries that device.

“My philosophy is that devices are personal, and it’s difficult for organizations to standardize on a single device” given the wide range of preferences people have with mobile computers, Jurczyk said.

Not all organizations feel the same way, and have built up years of expertise managing the BlackBerry inside their walls. Frank Gillman, the CTO for Los Angeles law firm Allen Matkins, says there has been some interest in the iPhone among his constituents but he finds it more cost-effective to stay a BlackBerry shop.

“Our reasons for not doing so have more to do with the age-old issue of having a finite number of internal resources to support our firm’s technology. Given our already significant investment in BlackBerry, we cannot make a strong business case for adopting yet another platform.”

The BlackBerry is still by far the preferred choice of the enterprise, but the iPhone is gaining ground, according to J. Gold Associates.

(Credit: J. Gold Associates)

That’s just part of the uphill battle the iPhone faces in the enterprise. For one thing, Apple’s dependence on a single carrier is a nonstarter for some companies that have long existing relationships with a different carrier, and enjoy the discounts that come along with that partnership.

And while Apple’s 2.0 software update brought along several business-friendly features that improved the security and manageability of the device, some analyst firms that advise CIOs on how to spend their technology dollars still feel the iPhone’s security isn’t quite where it should be compared with other options in the market. Gartner, the 800-pound gorilla of IT consulting, gave the iPhone a thumbs-up in July after the release of the 2.0 software but noted that iPhone security isn’t strong enough yet when it comes to custom applications on the device.

Jurcyzk is following the recommendations of J. Gold Associates by having his employees access secure corporate data through the iPhone’s Safari browser backed by the firm’s own security certificate. That way, no sensitive data actually resides on the device, but users can still open documents and view them with “full fidelity,” which is a huge plus for traveling lawyers who need to review documents with clients anywhere and everywhere, he said.

There’s also the issue that corporations will have to install iTunes on every iPhone user’s computer, which might not be part of the standard application list employed by big conservative corporations that grudgingly allow their employees to check baseball scores on ESPN.com from their PCs. And some IT managers also like to lock down a specific collection of software on the mobile device itself, but have no real way of preventing an employee from going home and adding Asphalt 4: Elite Racing to their iPhone.

But small businesses don’t have the same strict security and manageability requirements as larger enterprises, allowing them to move forward with iPhones more quickly than the big guys. Independent observers of that market are seeing more and more demand for iPhones among those types of customers, who fly under the radar individually but could add up to serious revenue for Apple.

While the iPhone may not be the ideal device from a manageability and security standpoint, it does come with high customer satisfaction ratings among business users.

(Credit: CC Cristiano Betta)

And there’s a sense inside some corporations that times are changing as mobile phones become computers that aren’t just for business, and aren’t just for fun. Executives and salespeople–the primary users of mobile computers in the enterprise–are constantly on the go, and an executive waiting for an airplane who pauses an episode of Mad Men to answer an e-mail from a client is a productive, accessible, and satisfied employee.

“Other devices are just hardcore e-mail devices, and even at that they don’t render the messages well,” Sonnenschein’s Jurcyzk said. “I travel a lot and it’s nice to have a personal aspect to my life, to look at photos of the family, to listen to music, or watch a movie. It’s nice to have that other stuff.”

Apple’s not the only company adapting to that shift in how we use mobile computers. “The new BlackBerry Storm that is coming out this month from RIM/Verizon brings a lot of the iPhone design and features to the BlackBerry platform. Assuming the device works as advertised, we’ll likely offer that as an option for our folks who want those types of features,” Gillman said. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has also said similar things about the need for future versions of Windows Mobile to cater to both personal and business tasks.

Before too long, businesses might decide that certain trade-offs regarding the manageability of their smartphones are worth making, so long as their concerns over security are met. Analysts expect Apple to improve the native security of the iPhone over the next several years, and it’s also possible that a major third-party enterprise software vendor such as SAP will step forward with a product that does it for them.

Well over 200 business-related applications are available on the App Store that help make the iPhone easier to use in a corporate setting, If Apple finds a way to improve the security profile of the iPhone to allow organizations to develop custom applications that store sensitive data on the device, it will have another feather in its cap.

Still, J. Gold Associates predicts just 16 percent of U.S. corporations to have an active interest in the iPhone in three years. The iPhone isn’t going to put RIM out of business just yet. But it is challenging the other company in its backyard, just as RIM doubles down with its efforts to make the BlackBerry more consumer-friendly with models like the Storm and the Bold. And it’s making everyone more aware of the trade-offs and needs of mobile computer users in the enterprise, which will make everyone’s product better in the long run.

And if Apple proves itself as an enterprise-friendly company with the iPhone, those famously stodgy CIOs might be tempted to take a second look at the Mac.

Apple’s initial foray into India hasn’t gone as well as it has around the rest of the world.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

There is a huge market for mobile phones in India, but according to the locals, Apple’s iPhone hasn’t even made a dent.

That’s the conclusion of a long story published by LiveMint.com analyzing the first few months of Apple’s foray into India with the iPhone 3G. Analysts estimate that just 11,000 iPhones have been sold in India since Apple launched in that country in September, which is probably equivalent to a week’s worth of sales at the downtown San Francisco Apple store.

It doesn’t seem that Apple ever thought it would make a huge splash in India, allocating just 50,000 iPhones to that market, according to the article. Of the 120 million mobile phones sold in India each year, around 6 million are of the smartphone variety, and Nokia owns the market with between 60 percent and 70 percent market share.

Several reasons are given for the tepid debut of the iPhone in India: price, promotion, and distribution. The authors note that India’s mobile market doesn’t follow the carrier subsidy model used in most places around the world, and as a result the iPhone is being sold for far more than some had expected after the $199 (9,500 rupees) worldwide price was announced. Still, that doesn’t seem to have been the primary reason for the slow sales, since competing phones are priced about the same as the 30,000-rupee 8GB iPhone, although some think that customers thought they would get the cheaper price and were disappointed that it didn’t apply to them.

The real reason seems to be that Apple and its carrier partners (Bharti Airtel and Vodafone) didn’t promote the iPhone as aggressively as was done in other countries. And distribution in India is a convoluted process involving several different retailers that employ multiple strategies to reach the many different types of customers that are found in India, according to the article.

The article is worth a read for anyone wondering how one of the world’s fastest-growing countries looks at the mobile phone market. Considering Apple has yet to make a splash in India, hasn’t officially launched in China, and is going to easily surpass its goal of shipping 10 million iPhones worldwide this year, the company would seem to have a lot of room for growth in those two countries next year.

Apple probably isn’t looking to challenge the two top search engines in the world with an add-on to its Safari browser.

(Credit: Apple )

There’s little doubt that Apple has thousands of engineers working on all kinds of crazy stuff down in Cupertino, Calif., but are they really planning to take on Google?

That’s the theory sort of advanced by TechCrunch on Thursday, with a post titled “Is Apple building a search engine?” Michael Arrington cites “multiple (if thin)” reports that Apple is working on developing its own search technology, presumably to get around using Google as the default search engine in the Safari browser.

The report, however, debunks itself, noting that Apple has not been hiring search engineers in the volumes that would be required to develop anything competitive with Google. The more likely conclusion, according to TechCrunch, is that Apple is working on a way to present search results more in line with the user interface on the iPhone and iPod Touch. That makes a degree of sense, though it’s a far cry from the initial headline.

Microsoft is announcing a series of changes to its Windows Live services aimed to give more of a social-networking flavor to the company’s communications services.

With the update, Spaces, Windows Live Hotmail, and Windows Live Messenger will get deeper ties with one another. While stressing that it is not trying to create a new social-networking site, Microsoft is nonetheless adopting concepts like news feeds and profiles that have made such services so popular.

“The general thing people are trying to do in all of these services is keep in touch,” said Brian Hall, the general manager for Windows Live.

The software maker is trying to expand the amount of time users spend in Windows Live, which Hall said already gets 11 percent of all Internet minutes, thanks largely to the popularity of Hotmail and Messenger.

On top of those, Microsoft is adding a revamped Windows Live Home page that focuses on a news feed of actions taken by one’s contacts as well as new types of views that focus on what a particular person or group is up to.

To populate its news feed, users will have the option to include their activities from a variety of other sites. The company has signed up reviews sites like Amazon and Yelp, blogging sites like WordPress and Twitter, as well as some less well-known social-networking sites.

“Facebook and MySpace are not on there right now,” Hall said. “We’re announcing a set of partners that are deploying in December.”

Photo sharing is a particular area of focus, with Microsoft offering its own storage options, as well as linking to third-party sites such as Photobucket and Yahoo’s Flickr. Starting next year, HP will also bundle Microsoft’s Windows Live Photo Gallery software with its consumer printers.

As for the changes to Windows Live itself, glimmers of the update are visible now, though most features are only in private testing and won’t be visible to the masses until next month, Hall said. For example, the latest public beta version of Windows Live Messenger has a “What’s new” feature, but for now it only shows things such as changing a profile picture within Messenger.

As part of the latest changes, Microsoft is also upping the amount of storage provided with its SkyDrive service to 25GB from 5GB.

Part of this wave of changes is also the update to Windows Live Hotmail, in which Microsoft has merged its standard and classic modes–a move that left some users grumbling.

Interestingly, Classic mode was an afterthought in the major Hotmail overhaul Microsoft did several years ago. Throughout the redesign, though, it took on added importance until it became the default mode when the revamped Web mail program ultimately launched.

A Microsoft blog reiterated this week that the Web-based version of Office won’t be tied to either Windows or Internet Explorer.

In a blog posting on its Channel 10 site, a Microsoft blogger noted that, owing to support of Firefox and Safari, the forthcoming Office Web Applications will run on Linux and the iPhone.

The blogger, Microsoft’s Sarah Perez, also noted that Microsoft won’t be mandating use of Silverlight, its rival to Adobe’s Flash.

“Silverlight is not required,” Perez said in the Q-and-A posting. “Using Silverlight will enhance the user experience, resulting in sharper images and improved rendering. Also, the Office Live Workspace has integrated Silverlight technology into the multi-file upload function for a better experience.”

Microsoft has said a technical preview of the Web-based Office apps will come later this year. Microsoft hasn’t explicitly said there will be a free version, though executives have said the apps will be part of Office Live, which comes in both free and subscription flavors. Perez takes that to mean–as do I–that there will be both free and paid options.

On the corporate side, Microsoft has said the Office Web Applications will be tied to SharePoint.

The forthcoming Web-based version of Microsoft Word, like online versions of Excel and PowerPoint, won’t be limited to the PC, Microsoft says.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Deep one-day discounts on products such as the new MacBook could be coming this Black Friday.

(Credit: CNET)

Here’s a rundown of some of the Apple news making the rounds this Wednesday:

Apple may launch most aggressive Black Friday pricing yet–AppleInsider: On a day when the stock market tanked once again on news of shifting priorities in the government’s bailout plan, coupled with pessimistic forecasts from huge retailers like Best Buy, this notion doesn’t seem all that far-fetched. Last year, Apple offered $101 discounts on MacBooks and other discounts on iPods on Black Friday, and Ben Reitzes of UBS thinks similar discounts could be applied more broadly across Apple’s product line on that particular day.

Apple’s iPhone faces off with the game champs–The Wall Street Journal: Is the “funnest iPod ever” something that should have Nintendo and Sony worried? Steve Jobs certainly thinks so, pointing out in this story (paid registration required) that a quarter of all the applications downloaded from the App Store have been games. The iPhone and iPod Touch may not yet be the choice of serious portable gamers, but Sega shared an interesting tidbit on how it views the iPhone: the 500,000 copies of Super Monkey Ball sold through the App Store would be considered a hit if it had sold that many copies of a game for the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP.

Apple focusing on MobileMe improvements in latest 10.5.6 builds–MacRumors: Everyone’s favorite whipping-boy in the Apple universe–MobileMe–has received a great deal of work in the next update for Mac OS X Leopard, according to MacRumors. The update will supposedly have improvements to how MobileMe syncs data between MacBooks and the online service, which lets you access contacts, calendars, and other data from any computer.

The genius behind Steve–Fortune: This actually came out earlier in the week, but Adam Lashinsky’s profile of Apple COO Tim Cook is worth a read if you haven’t checked it out already. There’s not a lot of new ground broken–Cook is the obvious short-term solution if Steve Jobs had to step down as Apple’s leader, since he’s a clear No. 2 and has already run the company once before–but the insights into Cook’s personality and working style make it worth your time if you were ever curious about Apple’s second-in-command.

Belkin’s new $50 cable aims to make the PC-to-Mac move even easier.

(Credit: Belkin)

Back in 2006, Microsoft was only too happy to tout a cable from Belkin that made it easier to move from XP to Vista. It even gave away the devices as part of its CES press kits.

However, a new twist on that cable is likely to get a far chillier reception in Redmond.

While Belkin’s original USB cable–the Easy Transfer Cable–was aimed at moving from XP to Vista, its latest product is aimed at those moving to a Mac.

The $50 Switch-to-Mac cable “automatically moves your music, movies, photos, files, and Internet preferences” from a Windows machine over to a shiny new Mac. It works with either XP or Vista on the PC side and either Tiger or Leopard on the Mac as far as Macs go.

There’s obviously other ways to move files and make the switch, but if this cable works as smoothly as the XP-to-Vista one did, it’s likely to make life easier for switchers.

As for Microsoft, it declined to comment on Belkin’s announcement.

The new Google search page on the iPhone packages content better.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)

Google has customized its search results for the iPhone’s display, getting around some awkward presentation issues.

“Results are formatted to be neatly displayed on the mobile screen, so there’s no need to scroll side to side. Local search results now include easier-to-press ‘Get Directions’ and click-to-call links. Maps are shown by default in the case of a single listing or accessible by the ‘Show map”‘ link for multiple listings,” said Google mobile team programmers Steve Kanefsky and Rob Stacey in a blog post Tuesday night.

The older look can be retrieved by scrolling to the bottom of the search results page and clicking the “Classic” link, but I much prefer the new look.

The new packaging, however, isn’t integrated with the iPhone itself, which has a built-in Google search option accessible via the magnifying glass icon at the top of each Web page. Those results are formatted for a much larger screen, at least on my iPhone. To get the fancy search results, you first must point the browser to www.google.com.

The images below show at left, the older iPhone search interface from a www.google.com search, and at right, the search results from using the Safari built-in search feature.

The older ‘classic’ look for a search from www.google.com on the iPhone.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)

Using the built-in search icon in iPhone’s Safari browser doesn’t take advantage of the better formatting.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)