Gartner: Expect an enterprise iPhone
Apple might start making enterprise-class iPhones or incorporate more enterprise-friendly features into existing models, a Gartner analyst has predicted. — Gartner previously dismissed the idea of iPhones becoming business tools, but the analyst group seems to be warming to the possibility.
Context & Ripple Effects
Since the iPhone's launch details began surfacing in May, the device has moved from novelty to market force: iSuppli's July figures show it outsold every other smartphone model in the U.S. while taking 1.8 percent of all handset unit sales. Against that backdrop, Gartner's shift matters — the firm had previously dismissed the iPhone as a business tool outright, and a reversal from the analysts who advise corporate buyers is itself a signal.
Apple's positioning compounds the timing. The company has a confirmed media event set for September 5, where sources point to a touch-screen iPod with a 3.5-inch display, giving any enterprise-features talk an immediate product-stage audience.
First-order effects
- Apple suddenly has demand-side validation it lacked at launch: the analysts who steer corporate handset purchasing now treat an enterprise-class iPhone as plausible rather than dismissible, putting pressure on the company to add business-friendly features to the current model or ship a dedicated variant.
Second-order effects
- IT departments weighing standard-issue smartphones gain a new contender in procurement evaluations, forcing incumbent enterprise-handset vendors to justify their devices against a phone that already leads U.S. smartphone unit sales on consumer momentum alone.
Third-order effects
- If consumer-designed phones keep crossing into corporate fleets, the boundary between consumer gadget and managed IT endpoint erodes — and research firms like Gartner become the gatekeepers deciding when that crossover is officially acknowledged.
The trend: Consumer-first smartphones are pushing into corporate IT, with analyst firms' reversals marking each stage of the crossover.