Forrester says iPhone Now Ready for the Enterprise
Forrester Research says Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone is now ready for the enterprise, at least judging by the experience of companies such as Kraft Foods and Oracle.
According to Forrester’s Ted Schadler, “The big iPhone lessons are: It’s more than just another device; it drives business culture change; it gives employees freedom to choose their own tools; and it changes the support model to self-service. But the real payoff of iPhone and similar mobile Internet devices is that it is a new platform for delivering content and collaboration applications to an increasingly mobile workforce.”
Forrester says the benefits of iPhone over other mobile devices, such as Research in Motion’s (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry, include a happier, more productive workforce and lower support costs:
- End users vote for freedom by purchasing iPhones over company-supplied devices.
- Mobile collaboration opportunities are greater on iPhone.
- Community-led iPhone support can mean lower support costs.
- A hard look at the data and voice plans sometimes reveals hidden savings.
In at least one case, an iPhone adopter found that the data plans for previous mobile devices were more expensive than the consumer plans AT&T is offering for iPhones. This company was able to reset its baseline plan pricing 30% lower for all phones because it supported iPhone.
Forrester’s report Making iPhone Work In The Enterprise: Early Lessons Learned includes recommendations on how best to make the transition to the iPhone.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
