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In the “something I never thought I’d see” department, Cisco won top honors at MacWorld last week for its new WebEx and MeetingPlace clients for iPhone, enabling iPhone users to participate in web conferences. Features vary by system, but this move reflects a couple of realities:
The rise in mainstream support for the iPhone continues into the Mac world, as IBM released Notes 8.5 for the Mac this week. I’ve been using the beta for about 3 months now and have found it to be fairly stable. It’s a fully feature comparable with Windows versions, and a huge improvement over the basic version I had used in the past.
Have we finally reached the point where Apple is viewed as a serious enterprise platform rather than a nuisance from IT’s perspective, and a costly excess from the view of management? I’d argue that we have.
TAGS Apple IBM Lotus
I don’t think we have reached a point where Apple is a serious enterprise platform yet, but I agree it’s heading in that direction. At Serena more than half of the new computers being issued are Macs (you have a choice between Lenovo and Apple), and the same is holding true for the iPhone versus the Blackberry.
We are finally starting to see people consolidating everything onto Apple products. Mainly because Apple is already so well ingratiated into each of our personal lives it starts to bleed into our work life also.
As work and home lives further intertwine Apple is in an excellent spot to be a chosen platform provider. This becomes especially true when more and more applications move to the cloud. Between Google, Apple, Facebook and a few other providers I could easily see a day where Microsoft is an afterthought.
Though we can never discount the incumbent, There is certainly a place for MSFT to reinvigorate itself and come out swinging.
The iPhone 2.0 was declared “enterprise ready“ almost immediatly after its release. I, however, found it to be lacking one big feature which is enterprise related – visual communication (http://blog.radvision.com/videooverenterprise/2008/06/17/will-iphone-do-for-video-conferencing-what-it-has-done-for-mobile-web-browsing/). The fact that a front facing camera, which is necessary for video telephony, is in the list of the iPhone’s missing features was in my view a big miss on behalf of Apple, if they want the iPhone to be considered an effective corporate working tool (and they do).
What can’t WebEx over iPhone users do? They can’t participate in the conference, as in being the active speaker, as in using VIDEO, voice and data to express themselves and collaborate.
The shortcomings of the iPhone as a corporate tool are numerous (and well-documented). New and Bold competition offers a real alternative (which many regard as much better as a business tool). I have a hard time accepting it as the working tool of the future when video is missing.
I have video on my desktop, I have video on my mobile handset (which isn’t even a smartphone), and I have video on my IP phone. Video is the medium of the future. If iPhone wants to be the future, it sure is lagging behind.
More here: http://blog.radvision.com/videooverenterprise/2009/01/12/if-iphone-wants-to-be-the-future-it-sure-is-lagging-behind/
Thank you for the posting. I think, we need to make a difference between iPhone professional use and Mac usage. iPhone has become a business mobile device. No question about that. All CIO’s on the gulf courses are using it :-).
Mac – different story. Still a machine for the creatives. Not in the enterprise yet. But Notes 8.5, Symphony open the door to collaborate beyond boundaries: some people on Mac, some on Linux on Netbook and some on Windows. This is the real stoy.
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