When the iPhone was initially released many reactions were that it was great but was not for business users.  In what can only be described as a stunning reversal, Gartner research now says the iPhone will be great for business users once the 2.0 firmware is released.

According to InfoWorld, Ken Dulaney, vice president and senior analyst at Gartner research said, “the release of firmware 2.0 changes that, enabling enterprises to develop local code and create applications that do not depend on network capabilities.”

He went on to say that this puts the iPhone on more equal footing with “business class” devices like the BlackBerry, Windows SmartPhones, and Symbian Series 60.

Businesses will have to retool their VPN systems and email to be as fully compatible with the iPhone as those are with Windows Mobile systems. 

Not an easy task but Gartner once said the iPhone would never be for businesses, if it can reverse its decision then IT departments should start making changes sooner rather than later.

With that out of the way, it’s up to Apple to produce the 2.0 firmware that we are expecting and hoping for.  Apple could even decide to produce a design revision of the iPhone to coincide with the new firmware but for now, that’s just wishful thinking.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 9:53 am under Opinion, iPhone.  Print This Post

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.