The Five O’Clock Track Team Presents: Business Thoughts
Posted by Chris on June 10, 2008 @ 8:24pm
This blog encompasses everything that I am personally interested in. Today, I am interested in the new Apple iPhone 2.0, the newest piece of deadly weaponry in Steve Jobs’ growing arsenal of midas touch products. This marvel of a piece of tech was unveiled yesterday in Cupertino, CA. Should people be concerned? Yes. Apple seems to have the same stroke of “can’t-do-nothing-wrong” success that Will Smith had and seems to continue to have with his selection of scripts. Neither of these powerhouses seems to misstep anywhere. Apple’s newest iPhone has a lower price and more features, namely it’s ability to run on 3G networks and it’s new support with Microsoft Exchange Activesync. If you check out this video presentation, it’s a hard not to get impressed where this is going. If I was Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, the two CEOs of Waterloo based Research in Motion, I’d be concerned. RIM’s share price fell $12.82 yesterday on the unveiling alone, however analysts don’t seem to be concerned. You know, we can talk about all of this stuff until the cows come home, but I kind of see this playing out a certain way. I’ve been a Blackberry user for the last 3 years, and I think they make a wonderful device. I’m currently knee deep in my new Curve 8330. I really like it, and it’s amazing to me how slick these little machines have become. I’ve been buying handheld computers and PDA’s since 1999, when PALM/3com was the industry leader. The evolution of the PDA into the smartphone was inevitable, and it just seems now that these things have come such a long way, I’m not really sure where they’re going to go. Apple has really changed the game with the introduction of their original iPhone, but it’s no secret that the inclusion of the Microsoft Exchange Server support is a clear shot across the bow of RIM and their dominance with business users. So…this leads me to my opinion. Clearly…especially if you watch that video, Apple is looking at taking a slice out of the Blackberry, but gradually…a very smart way to do it. Some people predict that they will do the obvious. Introduce a QWERTY keyboard on maybe the 3rd or 4th generatioin iPhone. Personally, once they do that, I think it’s a whole different ballgame. I believe this will really make business begin to consider migrating entire offices to Mac notebooks and desktops. Consistency is usually pretty key with these decisions, especially by small business owners with 20-50 employees, and the business community still argues the speed of a keyboard for sending and replying to emails is best. The touch screen technology is slick and very good, but it’s still hit and miss sometimes, especially if you have big fingers. Apple will test the waters with a reasonable attempt at getting the corporate user to follow in the footsteps of the Starbuck’s wallpieces who sit around creaming their pants and Ethiopian coffees, as they happily peruse all of the user developed apps for what is arguably the hippest gadget in years. They’ll gauge the response of business, and see what the impact will be of the new iPhone. I believe it will be enough for them to consider introducing that keyboard, because no matter how biz savvy this thing gets….business users have been used to tapping away on their devices, and ultimately want that on there.
