What makes the iPhone a business phone?

Since the iPhone’s inception in 2007, it has become the fastest selling phone on the market. But what's behind the explosion in sales from such a new operating system and device?

By Clare Hopping, 7 Oct 2009 at 11:49

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The Apple iPhone has only been in existence since 2007, but in those two years, there have been more sales of the touch screen device than any other phone in the UK and US.

It’s not just consumers who are drawn in by the iPhone’s good looks, impressive OS and App Store though; business users are buying them like hotcakes and companies are supporting them in their IT departments just as they previously supported BlackBerrys and Windows Mobile phones.

Now, it is Windows Mobile, RIM and the iPhone all battling for third place in mobile phone rankings for 2012, according to Carolina Milanesi, research director of mobile devices at Gartner.

Although Milanesi says that the iPhone still isn’t used at the same sort of level as BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile-based handsets in business, she explained that the iPhone is mainly used by individuals as a personal device but then extends to business.

“We have seen the iPhone enter the business segment mainly as a device acquired by individuals and supported to some extent by IT departments,” she said.

“More recently, especially with the security enhancements made via the software and hardware, we see the iPhone being considered by organisations.”

But what is it that makes the iPhone a suitable tool for business users?

The OS

Apple’s OS demonstrates how far operating systems have moved forward. It’s only two-and-a-half years old compared to Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and Symbian, and is a welcome fresh face compared to the other aged interfaces. In true Apple style, the iPhone’s OS is a design masterpiece.

It was the Apple OS that tempted Yurong Lin, chief executive at Deepnet Security to buy one.

“Actually my previous phone was a Windows Mobile phone and a Blackberry, I converted to the iPhone as it was easier to use and within a couple of taps you could find what you needed and the job was done,” Lin said.

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iPhone and Exchange

We issued iPhones to our staff to widespread delight that continues unabated. Apart from the rotten battery life, two issues I've had are we lost our exchange server for a period and the synching process wiped everyone's contacts when it couldn't find the server, and the phones are prone to dropping the carrier signal and taking a very long time to find it again - flight mode on and off speeds things up a bit but shouldn't really be the way. Pros far outway the cons though. I've gone from an avid loather of all things Apple to at least a begrudging admirer of the iPhone!

By Ip_david.j.tomli on Friday Oct 9