It’s not like business users have exactly been bear-ish on the iPhone because of its lack of enterprise features. In fact, the iPhone scores better among corporate users than do the RIM BlackBerry or Palm Treo lineups. So, we can only assume that true enterprise support on the iPhone would finally give Apple the leg-up that they need to crack the sought after business/enterprise smartphone market.
So, to that end, Apple has gone and given us exactly what we’ve been asking for – the iPhone is now enterprise-class. As expected at today’s Apple iPhone Software Roadmap press event in Cupertino, Apple has announced that they will be rolling out a host of new business features with the next firmware update. We can look forward to native Microsoft Exchange support with ActiveSync, push email, contact synchronization, 802.1x security compatibility, Cisco IPsec VPN support, and remote wipe!
Microsoft Exchange support will be integrated into the iPhone’s Mail.app and can be configured using iPhone-type interfaces (the On/Off toggle switches that we all love) in the Mail settings menu. MS Exchange will also synchronize with the iPhone’s Calendar.app and Contacts, ensuring that you get full Microsoft Exchange functionality from your iPhone.
Talk about some serious enterprise love for the iPhone. Push email via MS Exchange would have been enough (probably) to give the iPhone enough of an edge to seriously take on the business market, but with all those added features, we’ve got a truly business-class smartphone on our hands.
Look out for that next iPhone firmware update!
Image from Engadget Mobile.