Top 10 reasons for IT to support the iPhone

Philip Elmer-DeWitt makes an entire article for Fortune out of blockquoting a Forrester Research article

Forrester predicts that the iPhone will find its way into many enterprise environments — if it hasn’t already — because C-level executives are buying them and expecting support from IT. It’s only a matter of time before the iPhone filters down the corporate pyramid, and IT should have a strategy to handle these requests.

and goes on to provide 10 reasons why IT should not or will not support the iPhone.

Balls to that. Here’s my counter-offer.

1. Supports industry standard POP and IMAP with SSL out of the box This gives the IT manager a huge amount of choice in which mailserver to use. No longer is he limited to using Exchange and the legacy that entails. And yeah, you can get Push email too.
2. Developer support is huge months BEFORE the SDK is out. Companies such as SAP have admitted they have early access to the iPhone SDK and are into the development of an iPhone app for their software. When the SDK hits the general public in February you’ll see an explosion of applications.
3. Lacks a keyboard so more of the real estate of the device is usable Especially relevant for the web where we spend more time consuming data and reports. Instead of 30% of the device being turned into a chiclet keyboard which you need to learn to use, you have all of the size of the unit as a screen.
4. The best support for web standards anywhere because it uses WebKit at its heart – the same rendering engine used by Nokia’s smartphones and also Google’s Android OS. Open source and developed by Apple. I did some shopping the other day, first time I’d ever shopped online using a phone. On the company’s REAL web site, not some cut down mobile version. And yes, over EDGE too.
5. Premium features for standard prices as the iPhone’s features far outstrip the capabilities of other smartphones yet is priced around the same. Again, reduce your support burden as you find executives don’t need to lug around their fragile laptops.
6. It’s made this splash and it’s been out less than six months which has to be remembered. Already iPhone web browsers outnumber people browsing the web on Microsoft’s Windows CE/Pocket PC operating system and that OS has been shipping for 10 years now. It would be stupid to ignore the momentum.
7. It’s built upon a UNIX based operating system, with cutting edge developer tools, and a revolutionary user interface.
8. It’s got RIM, Microsoft, Nokia and others scared. Being a good IT person is about providing technology that provides a competitive advantage. These companies wouldn’t be scared for nothing. It’s up to the IT department to squeeze the iPhone for the competitive advantage.
9. This is the first generation Not a usual advantage? Perhaps not. But the iPhone beats the pants off anything out there in the first generation with 1.0 software. Sounds like time for the IT department to kit themselves out with one and learn this new device.
10. The End User will use it. That’s absolutely terrifying to a legacy Microsoft-styled IT department. Their entire subculture is filled with FUD. It’s too fragile to enable anything useful and anything that isn’t taught on the MCP course is simply beyond them. God forbid that anything should be “easy” or that it should work as planned. The two biggest bluffers I ever met were a Laurel and Hardy duo of Wintel SysAdmins. Nice blokes I’m sure but utterly useless in IT.

By far one of the best reasons for getting an iPhone would be to rub the nose of “ringzero” from Brisbane, Australia in it. His comments on the Fortune story highlight why most IT departments should be outsourced to some of the big outsourcing companies because then when your IT service is crap, at least you’re getting what you paid for.

His number one reason for why iPhone shouldn’t be supported?

• Users are stupid. They will lose, break or abuse this.

Times like this I loathe other IT people. And it would be the primary reason I’m not keen on attending IT conferences. Sentiments like that, about your Users, don’t make you sound big and clever. They make you sound like an ass. And it’s exactly the same sort of stereotyping bigotry that makes cops think they are above the law. Wintel IT folk have to remember that they’re utterly disposable. There’s another guy round the corner who’s cheaper, smarter, better qualified and isn’t a bigoted prick.