Apple's iPhone made its debut 10 years ago. Here's a look at how it has impacted business and the enterprise.
Apple's iPhone is turning 10 years old and the once-in-a-generation device has had a wide impact on mobility, computing, design, entertainment and the tech industry. But don't overlook how the iPhone has changed the way we work.
Now Apple's iPhone didn't do all the heavy disruption on work by itself. The iPhone should be viewed in the context of mobility, but cloud computing, analytics and social have also conspired to change the enterprise.
However, the iPhone moved the enterprise needle in significant ways. Here's a look at how Apple's iPhone impacted businesses.
Steve Jobs outlined the iPhone and noted that there was no need for a stylus and the best navigation tool was your finger. The killer app for the iPhone was better calls, he added.
That take may have been one of the few times that Jobs understated something. As I recounted when the iPhone initially launched, the losers of Apple's foray into phones were traditional enterprise device makers.
My loser list on iPhone launch day January 9, 2007 included Motorola's Q, Windows Mobile, Research in Motion (before becoming BlackBerry) and Palm. Flashback: Jobs: Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone
What the iPhone ultimately did was reinvent how corporations looked at mobility. Suddenly, the promise of handheld data and employee engagement was possible beyond email and push notifications popularized by RIM at the time.
More interesting is that Apple had little interest in the enterprise. In fact, Apple's enterprise ambitions are still fairly modest even though now CEO Tim Cook has focused on landing corporations.
Now this iPhone-to-the-enterprise migration took a few years. The knocks against the iPhone were security, integration with corporate apps, Microsoft Office availability and Exchange tools. It's no wonder that CIOs pooh poohed the iPhone at every turn--at least until CEOs wanted one.
So yes, the iPhone revamped the mobility concept for enterprises, but perhaps more importantly Apple led a movement that altered how corporate IT was delivered. Enter...
BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE
Apple became a de facto enterprise standard in the last decade largely due to one acronym--BYOD. Employees bought iPhones and brought them to work. CEOs decided they wanted an iPhone
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