There are lingering questions over whether Apple's iPhone 2.0 beta software, with Exchange e-mail and powerful security tools, can gain wide acceptance inside corporations for mission critical needs.
An IT official at a major U.S. bank today said that the case for iPhone 2.0 internal deployment looks "less optimistic" than when the announcement was first made on March 6. That comment came after the bank's IT officials got a thorough review of the 2.0 beta from Apple officials earlier this week, partly to see if federal security requirements imposed on banks can be satisfied, said the official, who asked not be named, citing bank policies.
The bank's review of 2.0 software is not complete, and the official would not elaborate.
Industry analysts agreed that iPhone 2.0 is filled with important features needed by corporate users. But some corporations, such as financial services firms and hospitals, have more demanding requirements, including federal rules for protecting data.
Enterprise Lite?
At its announcement, Apple Inc. said Nike Inc. and The Walt Disney Co., among others, would be adding more iPhone users with the 2.0 release in late June. But the announced users, so far, do not face some of the tight regulatory scrutiny of banks particularly, some analysts said.
"I'd call it [iPhone 2.0] enterprise lite," said one of those analysts, Nathan Dyer of Yankee Group Inc. in Boston, during a conference call with reporters and IT managers. "In financial and health care sectors, you're not going to see a huge uptick. It's certainly not for everyone."
Clearly, some analysts disagree, including Michael Gartenberg at Jupiter Research Inc., who said that when the CEO of a company buys an iPhone and wants to use it at work, "it becomes a defacto enterprise business tool." He added that the security in the iPhone "is certainly going to be good enough for most enterprises."
Apple officials would not respond to queries on this topic, referring a reporter to a Webcast of the iPhone 2.0 announcement.
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