To current iPhone business users: how useful is the iPhone as a business tool?
Just wondering, and a question directed to business users specifically is:
How useful do you find the iPhone as a business tool? Do you think it's functions are sufficient to keep you productive?
I am concerned because of the lack of many productivity features:
- copy and paste
- sending files over bluetooth
- no task-syncing
- no file structure and inability to view word and pdf files without e-mailing them to yourself
So what do you guys think? how have you been able to compromise? If I'm looking for more of a business/productivity tool, would the HTC Touch be a better alternative? Are there other smartphone alternatives I should look at as well? (that aren't huge and bulky)
It's not useful as a business tool, unless you can live without advanced PIM synchronization, no Push email, etc. None of the features you listed are really supported, or supported well.
And you'll notice the iPhone isn't being marketed as such. I'd say go for the Touch until Apple pulls their head of out of their ***.
The opinions expressed in this post reflect those of everyone, ever.
Unless you have Microsoft Web Access, not well. I forward 100% of my office e-mail to a Yahoo acount so I can keep tabs on it. If I need to reply to a given e-mail, I log into my Outlook mailbox via Web Access and reply from there. Same goes for checking my calendar. A little inconvenient, but it works. As for contacts, periodic syncing works fine. Mine don't change that often.
I actually find the lack of integration a benefit. When I was tethered to my Blackberry/Dash, I read e-mail constantly and replied 24/7. Because its less convenient with the iPhone, I find myself really only replying to things when absoutely necessary. But I am still in touch. For me, I think it actually is working better than the old way.
iPhone has all the media bells and whistles: Internet, iPod, stunning graphics etc.
it has serious deficits for a true business phone tho.
No push email. No MMS (Yes, MMS even for business. I hate having to get every attachment as an email that never works)
No real bluetooth support.
No tethering
No true syncing apart from iPod and contacts.
Missing a few needed apps: Tasks, notes that mean something
Maps are nice but I miss the GPS.
Bottom line: I do love my iPhone but I've rearranged my handsets to where my iPhone replaced my Razr as my personal handset and my Treo is back on line as my backup work phone, for when I absolutely have to have the added features (Like when on the road and a laptop is inconvenient or infeasible)
My take? The iPhone is a SmartPhone with awesome multimedia capabilities. But it doesn't replace a PDA It's not a laptop replacement, whereas a PDA can be.
I think you might've hit some nerves here by posting that.
Only when people troll, my friend...
Anyway, to the OP: If the issues you've outlined concerned you, then you've kinda already answered your own question. Do you need these features? If you have clear indications that you do, then no, the iPhone is not an acceptable business tool for your needs.
Some HAVE found that the iPhone is good enough. I for instance, have been using smartphones since the Qualcomm/Kyocera QCP-6035, on up to blackberries, Windows Mobile devices, and Treos. Realistically, I've found that the work I do with Office attachments is too complex to realistically do on a smartphone of any present capacity, beyond simply reading and reviewing. With any serious editing comes the near-certainty that the smartphone will simply flake out and make me spend more time and effort on the task at hand than simply waiting for a more capable computer, such as a laptop or desktop, and making the changes there.
So, my answer has been to let the iPhone do the e-mail and web browsing, which it does VERY well IMO. I switched to Mac early this year before I even thought I'd get an iPhone, and I've found that it does PIM very well, too (apparently that's not the case if you're a Windows user and must use Outlook). And it does document viewing well too.
To me, this is what realistically people can and should do with present smartphones. In my experience, expecting smartphones to do more is a nice concept, but a fool's errand with the way things are now. You really end up being less productive in the end if you insist on doing it.
i have a htc touch and iphone and I use my touch has more of a business phone because it and easly sink words and other apps to my labtop easly in seconds.
Did you notice it isn't being marketed as a business phone? You can't get it on a business plan.. only a personal plan. With that said, five of us here in the office have switched to iPhones and love them for our business use =)
Did you notice it isn't being marketed as a business phone? You can't get it on a business plan.. only a personal plan. With that said, five of us here in the office have switched to iPhones and love them for our business use =)
Your requirements must be on the "low end" of enterprise functionality. Most business users would find the iPhone sub-par for business use to say the least.
Your requirements must be on the "low end" of enterprise functionality. Most business users would find the iPhone sub-par for business use to say the least.
Ability to check e-mail? Yup.. it's there. We IMAP our mailboxes every 15 minutes when we want to. Honestly, when I'm away from my desk I don't want to know when I get a new e-mail.. I'll check it when I get back. But, if I'm at a clients for a long time, I will sometimes pull up my e-mail when I leave, to see if anything is pressing.
Otherwise, it's a regular little computer. I have web browsing, e-mail (synced to desktop via IMAP), notes, calendar and tasks.
Ability to check e-mail? Yup.. it's there. We IMAP our mailboxes every 15 minutes when we want to. Honestly, when I'm away from my desk I don't want to know when I get a new e-mail.. I'll check it when I get back. But, if I'm at a clients for a long time, I will sometimes pull up my e-mail when I leave, to see if anything is pressing.
Otherwise, it's a regular little computer. I have web browsing, e-mail (synced to desktop via IMAP), notes, calendar and tasks.
What else do you need?
I think the appropriate question is what else do YOU need? Other people have other requirements.
Like I said before, your requirements are those of low-end enterprise functionality. Plus, IMAP is simply an email protocol - it has nothing to do with syncronization at all, except with a mail database.
How about immediate (or damn near) PIM synchronization (i.e. edit a contact/calendar/task, and it is reflected on your wireless device in seconds)? How about office doc support? How about high security/encryption (IMAP is a clear-text technology, as it POP3)? How about remote device disable/wipe?
Your requirements must be on the "low end" of enterprise functionality. Most business users would find the iPhone sub-par for business use to say the least.
I would have to agree. Someone posted earlier about the Iphone was 3 things. A phone, a multimedia player, and a web browser. In which it does do very well. But the lack of any other "PDA" type functionality, does make the Iphone fall short for business demands.
A certain cenario that I see alot and miss with the Iphone, is the ability to exchange contact info via BT, hook up to activsync, and have my Outlook contact list update. I also miss Exel and Word. And for the life of me, I cannot get OWA to work with the Iphone although it works with WM(8525). But being that others seem to make it work with the Iphone, means it's just user-error. But, because we use both our private mailboxes and large amounts of mail enabled PF's, I'm scared that our store may be too big for the Iphone to load.
To me, the ability of reading HTML formatted e-mails, (including tables, etc), much exceeds all of the other drawbacks.
I'm currently working on a solution for wireless PIM synchronisation, which is my current only gripe...
I have exchange with imap turned on, and 5min e-mail checking hack, which is just as useful as push for me... (plus for some reason it works better than my e61 with activesync used to)...
I went from an E61 to the iphone, i dont regret it.
You need to make the choice yourself, but i already tell you, for me, the lack of ota pim syncing is almost a deal breaker, but the quality of e-mail is just so many miles ahead everything else i tried that it just kind of balances it.
I rarely use ipod and other media stuff, and I rarely if ever used any document editing on the e61, so i dont miss that. If there is anything that i need to carry with me like presentations (which arent supported on the iphone), I export to PDF and e-mail to myself. Works fine for me.
Cheers!
Roy Nasser
From Brazil!!! erm..... from Boston as of sept. 18/2002
How about immediate (or damn near) PIM synchronization (i.e. edit a contact/calendar/task, and it is reflected on your wireless device in seconds)? How about office doc support? How about high security/encryption (IMAP is a clear-text technology, as it POP3)? How about remote device disable/wipe?
It supports office docs. I can open email attachments and view them. I'm not so locked down to my work and desk that I want to edit files while I'm on the road! Good grief. High security? First, it's illegal to sniff cell bands, so I feel pretty safe running IMAP across GSM. Second, you can use SSL for IMAP.. so no problems there.
i dont think that the iphone will come really close to the performance of a blackberry/treo/other pda phone.
but it did replace my treo and i attribute that to my laptop being with me most of the time anyway.
you will have to determine what phone fearures you need and see if it stacks up with what the iphone has to offer. what phone are you going to be upgrading from?
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Originally Posted by jontymisra
But, because we use both our private mailboxes and large amounts of mail enabled PF's, I'm scared that our store may be too big for the Iphone to load.
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