More iPhone fuss »
PHILIP STORRY - JUL 14, 2008 (09:54:36 PM)
The iPhone is out, and my what a fuss we have!
(Mostly still about Notes synchronising, of course.)
I tend to trust Ars Technica - they're a good bunch there, and rarely wrong. And their review says it's not up to Blackberry standards when it comes to the Enterprise side.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't expecting that. This is the page of the review where they cover the Exchange Integration.
Apparently the synchronisation is better than a Blackberry Pearl's - changes came over faster, especially things like deletions and messages being moved to other folders.
Which sounds correct to me, as my understanding is that the Blackberry network prioritises new message alerts over routine synchronisation details - whereas ActiveSync seems to treat new email as a folder synchronisation message anyway, meaning every new email is effectively as reconciliation in Blackberry terms.
(That's got to be higher bandwidth, surely?)
But apart from that and basic message functions being OK, it goes downhill rapidly.
No searching of messages on the device.
No creating new meeting invitations from the device.
No task management from the device.
And I also hear that you can't copy and paste text. Blimey!
For business use, the 3G iPhone looks like a nice first try, but not really a competitor. Hopefully Apple will fix these things in later firmware updates...
What I'd say is that regardless of the interface, if I rolled out iPhones instead of Blackberries, most of the senior positions I've ever worked with would want a Blackberry back.
The lack of search and the inability to create a new meeting would be the main reasons - most "important" people aren't at their desk when they schedule follow up meetings, they're still in the current meeting!
I can see that happening across golf clubs everywhere once word spreads - an iPhone is whipped out, and some wag quips "nice phone - why don't you schedule some time with me to show it off?"...
For the future, the iPhone is important - but I don't think it's a Blackberry killer yet, nor has my mind changed that it's suitable for anything but the SMB space.
(And I remember when Blackberries were green/black monochrome screens and static images, whilst everyone else was colour and animated. Blackberries have come a long way since then, haven't they?)
