iPhone 3G - a worthy business tool?

The new 3G iPhone went on sale on the 11th July in the typical style and frenzy of an Apple product launch. There were queues of people outside O2 and Carphone Warehouse stores up and down the country with no where near enough handsets to go round.

So, is it any good? Well that remains to be seen but you can be sure there will be the army of Apple antagonists out there to rubbish the device, to call it a fad and a design gimmick. You can also be sure there will be that group of loyal Apple customers who will rave about the device whatever its place in the cut-throat world of mobile devices. Such partisan views make it hard for the undecided (or uninitiated) to get any useful opinion so I decided to take the plunge and buy one anyway, to use as a phone and as a business tool.

So will other corporate users be tempted by this new device? Business interest should be fostered by Apple's decision to license Microsoft's ActiveSync protocol. This means that Exchange users will be able to get push email, contacts and calender on their 3G iPhone. Business needs email and connectivity, and providing exchange syncing will go a long way in making the  iPhone 3G a viable business tool. I wonder though if the fact that the syncing process requires iTunes to be installed on the hosting PC will be a negative factor when deciding whether to roll out ipones to general staff, not to mention adding iTunes to the IT Support departments list of manages software.

Personally I think the 3G iPhone is a fantastic product, very usable with a brilliant user interface, great design and fantastic looks. I've never owned an Apple product before but feel I'm being converted already! It's only been a few days but love it so far. How it will fare in the world of corporate business is another matter, I for one hope it succeeds.......

Hi Tony

Good post!  Thanks for that.

I had a play with the latest iPhone and yes, I'd agree, it's very impressive.  The UI is beautiful and works very well.  I've always been a fan of HTC products, PDA's, smart phones.  Normally I bought them with a phone contract.  For a long time they have had all of the features and more that the iPhone sports now.

One thing that Apple seems very good at is leading some people to believe that the technologies available within their products were invented by them.  Quite ironic really considering Apple's favourite record for many years was 'Microsoft stole all our ideas and sold them as theirs'.  In fact, most, if not all of the features (excepting the great UI) have been available for some time in other devices.  Creative, for example, have been manufacturing fantastic mp3 players for some time, yet they never seemed to get the popular approval that the iPod got.  The only explanation that I can think of is 'looks'.  It seems we, as a group, are very susceptible to beauty.

Of course, the above is merely my humble opinion.  The iPhone is very cool and if I hadn't just renewed my phone contract I might have been tempted.

My favourite gadget at the moment and perhaps of all time is my HTC Shift - A new Ultra Mobile Personal Computer or UMPC for short - Basically a very small laptop running MS Vista.  It has built in webcam, SD slot, USB port, tilt screen, biometrics and many other features.  It has a slot for a Sim card and I have subscribed to 3's mobile broadband.

3 have come a long way and their current deals for both regular phone contracts and mobile broadband are second to none.  When I recently left o2 to move to 3 the guy at o2 was so desperate to keep me as a customer he started to make all manner of wild claims.

Perhaps the funniest to me was the statement that 3 are a second rate operator and have a very small network.  That was his explanation as to why o2 charged me £2.68 per MBit and 3 charged me £7 for 3GBits.  You get what you pay for was the sales guy parting salvo.  Indeed I have - fantastic mobile broadband coverage wherever I go, even in Singapore and Australia.

The only thing second rate to me was o2's retention patter.

The device is so cool and such a timesaver.  Having mobile broadband is simply fantastic and the device fits in my trouser pocket (with a bit of jiggling).

I've been intending to write a review of the device for some time now but I keep putting it off.  I think your post has motivated me to do one.

I believe it is an invaluable tool for business owners and I recommend it to anybody who asks.  Of course it is a little more expensive than an iPhone, for example.  I believe the HTC Shift retails for around £750 ex vat.  They are also available with a phone contract but are priced a little higher and the operator charges more for HSDPA data access then 3 do at the time of writing.

If you need a portable device with the features of a laptop then I very much recommend you check out the HTC Shift.

You can view the companies' product description here: http://www.htc.com/www/product.aspx?id=596

I just came across this post which may be of interest to this reading this thread.

http://www.pcretailmag.com/news/30192/iPhone-3G-breaks-one-million-sales-mark

Enjoy!