iPhone/iPod touch Enterprise Features and SDK

Apple has been receiving input on iPhone in the enterprise from several of their large customers including Genentech and Stanford University. Their primary requests for features include:

1. Push email
2. Push calendar
3. Push contacts
4. Global address lists
5. Additional VPN protocols including Cisco IPsec VPN
6. Certificates and Identities
7. WPA2 / 802.1x
8. Ability to enforce security policies
9. Device configuration
10. Remote wipe

These features will be included in the 2.0 release of the iPhone in late June.

Apple is working with Nike and Disney to setup Microsoft Exchange environments for testing the iPhone in their enterprises. The results thus far appear to be very positive.

I can't help but think that this is a painful thing for Microsoft. On one hand they are going to make money on every iPhone that is sold, on the other they are helping Apple build a more solid enterprise mobile device. ActiveSync on the iPhone makes Windows mobile look even less special.

It is going to take some time before Blackberry users abandon their devices in favor of iPhones. It may never happen. I know a few blackberry users and they aren't anywhere close to having an open mind on this subject. They love their Blackberry devices and service.

The demos of the SDK were amazing (especially Hello World). It will be interesting to see how many existing 3rd party apps appear in the App Store in late June.

Developers who wish to create iPhone applications will do so using a Mac and the Xcode suite of applications. I am not familiar with Objective-C but that won't keep me from playing with the SDK and attempting to create an application!

Those exploring the beta SDK will also have to pull this off without the Interface Builder. This should not be an issue for experienced developers.

The Getting Started videos available on the iPhone Dev Center page describe an issue that may limit the usefulness of some applications -- 3rd party applications quit after pressing the home screen button, when a call is received, or upon linking to another application like Safari or Google Maps. This will be an issue for anyone developing applications that need to receive messages in the background. The AIM chat application won't be able to receive messages and the SalesForce application won't be able to receive leads unless the applications are running. It seems likely that Apple would allow major organizations like AOL or SalesForce to create a process that runs with minimal CPU and memory usage to receive messages in the background. Examples of Apple applications that work this way include Mail, Text (SMS), Clock (alarm/stopwatch/timer), Calender (alerts), Phone (incoming calls/voicemail), iPod, and the new App Store (to receive updates).

Overall the announcements are extremely positive and much more than we expected.