iPhone 3G S still not enterprise-ready, analysts say

The new iPhone 3G S boasts remote data wipe, hardware-based encryption and tethering of the device to a laptop that would seem to please business users interested in protecting data and enhancing productivity.

But no, those steps are not good enough for widespread adoption of the new smartphone inside large businesses, four analysts said today. What iPhone 3G S still needs is a system, run by the enterprise IT staff, to manage and monitor iPhones in a large business.

Large businesses "have to make sure that if they do anything, it can be audited. And to do that, they have to force things on the user to create a consistent environment," Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner Inc. said.

The problem with iPhone 3G S is "that you don't have a console to enforce corporate policies across an entire group of workers," said Kevin Burden, an analyst at ABI Research.

The iPhone 3G S also doesn't allow processing in the background that lets IT departments run updates and other management tools coveted by large enterprises, especially financial firms that are bound by strict federal regulations for the treatment of data.

"Apple has not turned this [background processing] on, and without this, security will be limited," Dulaney said.

Burden said Research in Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry, and Microsoft Corp., maker of Windows Mobile, have sufficient tools for managing large deployments of devices, but iPhones do not.

Steven Drake, an analyst at IDC, said that while third-party management companies are making tools to work with the iPhone in business settings, the tools are harder to implement and use. Drake said he knows of some businesses that have tried to implement the iPhone across many workers, but have backed off because of management and security worries across a large group.

Despite his reservations, Drake called the overall iPhone 3G S improvements for the enterprise "a good step" by Apple.

Since its launch in 2007, the iPhone has suffered from "enterprise envy," added Steve Hilton, an analyst at The Yankee Group. "Having been built for consumer segments, the iPhone now seeks the magic blue pill to extend into the enterprise. Remote wipe, encryption, tethering [are] necessary, but not sufficient" for enterprise adoption, he said.

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