Is the iPhone fit for business? Part two

Although the iPhone is aimed squarely at consumers, we all know many corporate devices come to favour through the back door, so why should the latest member of Apple's family be any different?

By Maggie Holland, 1 Jan 2008 at 18:08

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Day three

People have started to call me on the iPhone. Although the unlock/answer call feature is not conducive to British weather, i.e. the cold. Due to the touch screen, a gloved hand is useless as the screen only responds to the touch of human skin.

Inside or in clement weather, the slide to unlock/answer feature is pretty slinky. My BlackBerry calls people while it's in my bag all the time and usually at ungodly hours of the night when people are at their least tolerant, which isn't the best way to make friends and influence people at work, not least the boss. The iPhone's multi touch technology eradicates such concerns.

At a recent event to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the short message service (SMS), Kevin Wood, chief executive of Airwide Solutions, highlighted that the "two certainties about the billions of mobile subscribers worldwide today is that they can make calls and text people." That's especially so in the business world, where users aren't as swayed by fancy cameras, music players and the like. Call functionality, SMS, web browsing and application support are key.

Apple goes to the top of the class when it comes to some of the calling aspects of the phone, particularly with respect to its visual voicemail innovation. However, having wielded my iPhone in both Essex and London, the adequate reception I received could be improved on.

Moving on from signal strength, the ease at which you can use the touch screen to make and receive calls (with the caveat of gloved digits) speaks for itself, while the ability to listen to voicemail as .amr files and fast forward to the 'good bits' is a must have for the average business user who listens to messages almost as much as they're on the phone itself.

Rather than one voicemail icon, wooing you to dial a three digit number to see how many messages you have, the visual interface is a brilliant time saver. Business users can quickly and easily run through their messages in between meetings without hampering productivity, with a quick and easy option to return the message leaver's call or delete the message.

The iPhone's speakers deliver high quality sound and worked perfectly for a conference call where I had to dial in two additional participants. Without having to read a complex instruction manual, I quickly and easily put the first caller on hold while I dialled the other number and, at the press of a button, all calls were merged into one. I can see this aspect being a key plus for business users looking to start blurring the lines between their newly-purchased consumer device and the world of work.

Texts are easily stored, logger by user in message threads making it a doddle to find what you're looking for. Although Apple has let users down when it comes to the small keyboard available for text input. The svelte nature of the keypad is likely to cause problems for anyone with a bit of meat on their bones.

At 5.1" with almost child-like hands, even my dexterity was questionable and I hit the right letters first time on a ratio of about 1:3. I can therefore empathise with others who may be frustrated at the input mechanism offered by Jobs et al in this first generation device, although the inbuilt dictionary, which offers both corrective and predictive options, does its best to remedy the situation.

One can only hope that future versions will replicate some of the goodness from the browser keyboard (which can be tilted into landscape to provide a more amply-spaced input method thanks to the iPhone's accelerometer), when it comes to messaging.