Reuters has this little snippet about SAP planning to release an iPhone client despite analysts falling over themselves to tell us the iPhone isn’t business-friendly:
On Monday, SAP broke with precedent by saying it would introduce a version of its upcoming customer relationship management software for the iPhone before launching versions for mobile devices from RIM and Palm Inc (PALM.O).
The reason? SAP’s own salespeople were clamoring for it, saying the iPhone was easier to use, according to Bob Stutz, SAP senior vice president in charge of developing customer relationship management software.
“This isn’t necessarily iPhone deployment by way of the IT department, but it’s by people who really want to use this device and IT is responding in a really positive way,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with market research firm Jupiter Research.
This is exactly the way that the market should work. The customers want something, they build a case and the IT department responds in a positive way. In the most simple of business cases, “easier to use”, that’s exactly the sort of response an IT department should respond with.
I’m not a fan of Blackberry devices. In a previous life I was forced to help people use them when attached to the O2 network and I can say that simply because their IMAP implementation in the device sucked the big one it was not a pleasure to use for email. It was functional, it was something the customer tolerated, but under no circumstances did it take away the pain. (And frankly the number of keyboard shortcuts we needed to look up made it more reminiscent of using Wordstar or DOS than a modern handheld device).
February brings us the iPhone SDK and SAP is one of the first of many companies which will be queuing up to get their applications onto iPhone. Others we’ll see will be Skype, VNC, a Terminal, an AIM client, an MSN client – maybe even a Yahoo client (as long as they all maintain Store-And-Forward IM messages).
Sure, analysts tell us that an Exchange client is essential but that’s for Microsoft to produce and we have to ask them why they wouldn’t create Outlook for iPhone and why everyone expects Apple to create it? Same reason they don’t produce Outlook for Macintosh – because the Mac would continue to replace Windows in business but at a frighteningly quicker rate. I’ve said before there is no option out there for Groupware which realistically compares to Exchange. SAP is creating a client for their corporate applications and not expecting Apple to build it. So, come on Microsoft, where’s the client for iPhone?
(Why does Microsoft get that benefit of the doubt? Cisco creates clients for their servers/routers. SAP does for their applications. Apple does for their servers. Why does Microsoft get away with this crap?)
What application would you like to see on your iPhone?