The head of Forrester Research is predicting that the iPhone could soon steal the BlackBerry’s business crown.
“If you’re the typical CEO, you are carrying a Blackberry. But not for long,” claims George F Colony on his blog. “Once the iPhone is able, in a corporate setting, to replicate all aspects of Outlook with high security, the iPhone floodgates will open and you will have a new device.”
It seems a bold claim, especially given a recent survey which noted that two thirds of businesses still don’t support the iPhone, and aren’t planning to do so in the near future. However, Colony reckons this will all change as companies cotton on to the benefits of apps.
“It’s possible that your company already has an iPhone application in the market servicing your customers, and I predict that corporate dashboards for CEOs will be a small but influential segment of the iPhone apps portfolio. In some markets, it’s changing how customers connect to companies,” he claims.
His enthusiasm for the iPhone revolution doesn’t stop there. Colony goes on to claim that “the iPhone interface is faster, more intuitive, more flexible, and more versatile” than that of the BlackBerry, though he admits the virtual keyboard is “annoying”.
He also predicts that Apple will “soon” release the iPhone from its exclusive deals with mobile providers, broadening its appeal.
Unfortunately, Colony doesn’t believe Apple can conquer enterprises without making a few sacrifices: “Every time Apple tries to leave the consumer and go enterprise, it goes from being cool to being incompetent. The company hates to take direction from anyone – especially from large company CIOs.
“Apple may have to bend its corporate culture to grab the enterprise iPhone business – the opportunity of moving iPhones into large companies will be too big and too lucrative to ignore,” he concludes.
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