There has been recent speculation that AT&T will announce that they are attempting to encourage business’ to use the iPhone by ensuring companies that its back-end enterprise billing and support systems will accompany the device when the first model ships. While AT&T has declined to offer any further details on the new approach, analysts are quick to offer their two cents on the gutsy move by the company.
Gartner analyst, Ken Dulaney, said that the single biggest problem with the iPhone is the fact that it does not have user-replaceable battery and businesses would be crazy to use the phone without one. Dulaney also said, “Building a phone is one of the most difficult things to do.” In short, buisnesses should steer clear of all first model devices. Other problems with the phone include that the device runs a closed version of Mac OS X; meaning enterprises won’t be able to extend their corporate applications to the iPhone, and the fact that the phone has a touch screen keyboard instead of a physical one.
Dulaney and tons of other analysts believe that this bold move by AT&T is a HUGE mistake. They would tell customers not to switch to the iPhone when compared with other smart phone devices, such as the BlackBerry.
