Is Apple preparing Microsoft Exchange support for the iPhone?
Apple is expected to announce some “significant business-oriented software support for the iPhone on March 6th” at its iPhone press release event. The iPhone has had limited success in the enterprise sector due largely to its lack of business-orientated software and it is anticipated that this gap will be bridged next week.
IBM has already announced that it will launch Lotus Notes email for iPhone so it would be logical for Apple to bring IBM into the fold of ‘blessed’ and supported software. Bringing in Microsoft Exchange would take the iPhone’s business credentials to another level.
Shaw Wu, an American Technology Research analyst says:
“If true, this will prove key in having more enterprises and SMB adopt iPhone as their mobile platform. What isn’t as clear to us is how Apple will accomplish this, whether this is from internal development, third-parties including Microsoft with its ActiveSync technology, or Research in Motion Blackberry Connect or a combination of two or more.”
Recent ChangeWave surveys have shown that enterprise Apple iPhone users are more satisfied with their phones than RIM Blackberry users. It will be interesting to see how these figures are effected once the iPhone is exposed to a much larger and perhaps more demanding enterprise market.
ChangeWave says:
“Nearly three-in-five (59%) of Apple’s business customers say their company is Very Satisfied with the iPhone.”
“RIM (maker of the Blackberry) ranks second with a Very Satisfied rating of 47%, though we note this represents an unusually large 8-pt decline from the previous survey.”
We’ll see next week whether survey figures translate into Apple seizing perhaps its best enterprise market opportunity in a decade.
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