Free WiFi Hotspot Locator from TechNewsWorldAT&T (NYSE: T) 
has quietly begun offering the iPhone -- currently popular primarily in the consumer market -- to its business and enterprise 
customers. Some customers have been clamoring for business account service plans that would work with the iPhone ever since it was released last summer, but for reasons not particularly clear, AT&T hasn't done so until now.
The timing, however, may be the key. The iPhone has been widely criticized as not being ready for enterprise-class deployments, and some analysts have declined to consider it a true smartphone because it doesn't support third-party applications.
Much of that is poised to change. With its latest software update, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has made it much easier to access Web-based applications on the iPhone, and the company will soon deliver a Software Development Kit that will let vendors or enterprise customers create native iPhone applications.
Plus, IBM's (NYSE: IBM) Lotus Notes and Lotus Symphony application suite will also likely ship with iPhone support in the near future.
The AT&T Plans
The AT&T Web site doesn't have an iPhone announcement or press release, but the wireless business plan pages now detail the iPhone offering. "To use iPhone as a business customer, you'll need to sign up for a 2-year service agreement or a renewed 2-year service agreement if you're an existing AT&T wireless customer," the site notes. "New Corporate Responsibility Users and other corporate-liable users (CRUs) must activate an eligible voice service plan for iPhone and an Enterprise Data Plan for iPhone. If you're an existing CRU with iPhone-eligible voice service and you want to keep your current voice plan, you just need to add an Enterprise Data Plan for iPhone. (This will replace your current data plan.)"
Enterprise Data Plans for iPhone include Visual Voicemail, unlimited data with both e-mail and Web -- for use in the U.S., AT&T says -- plus a specific number of SMS text messages. Customers can browse the Internet and send e-mail as often as they like without being charged additional fees.
Enterprise Data Plans start at US$45 per month, with $55 and $65 options for heavy SMS message users. The pricing, however, comes with a $25-per-month savings until December 2008.
Global Travelers
For those who travel internationally, AT&T offers an add-on Data Global Plan that will work in 29 countries, starting at $24.99 per month.
Interestingly, business customers, like regular consumers, will need to activate their iPhones via iTunes, which is an application that isn't typically distributed in enterprise environments.
Who's Interested?
"The interest in the U.S. is high. The interest in Europe is somewhat less than expected, in part because Europeans see the EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) network speed as a disappointment given the widespread availability of 3G GSM networks over there," Ken Dulaney, a Gartner (NYSE: IT) analyst, told MacNewsWorld. "Demand is mostly from end users for a variety of reasons ... well-heeled execs wanting the latest gadget, Apple groupies and those who feel the product is easier to use," he added.
Sean Ryan, a research analyst who covers mobile enterprise devices for IDC, told MacNewsWorld that in one recent IDC poll, 70 percent of users said they would use the device for both personal and business use. "There's a good number of people who want to use it as a business tool," he noted.
Backing Into Enterprises
"Most smartphones have gone the other way, moving from business to consumer," Jeff Kagan, a telecom industry analyst, told MacNewsWorld. "But Apple is a consumer brand, which has many business users who would buy it if they could. So Apple is coming at this from the opposite direction," he added. "The business marketplace is more complicated than for the consumer. The standard Apple features have to work, but also all the business features for every particular business have to work."
Those business features raise the question of whether the iPhone can cut it in the enterprise space, especially when it comes to IT directors who want secure devices, first and foremost, but also have other problems with the device.
"Enterprise IT is against the product because A, the security of the product is rudimentary, B, it assumes an online connected model when they know that the world they live in is intermittently connected, C, [there's] no alternative supplier for the iPhone, [which] violates rules for having backups that they have in place for other devices and why they don't permit Macs in the enterprise, D, Apple's unwillingness to provide advance warning of changes in the platform," Dulaney said.
While IDC's Ryan agreed that most IT departments aren't keen on the iPhone because it's not a fully supportable corporate device, he did note that there are certainly executives who are begging to get their hands on an iPhone for business use. "I think some [business] people have been bringing it in the back door," he added.
RIM Competition
The Research in Motion BlackBerry-based mobile smartphone world currently dominates the enterprise user's pocket -- or hip clip.
"The Blackberry meets all enterprise requirements except for the fact that its development environment is proprietary. Apple is far from this benchmark," Dulaney noted. "We said we thought it would take Apple a year to enter the enterprise. That said, they have never made any statement that they consider this a serious market."
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