iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st - Gizmodo Comments

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

owencocktails — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:06:25 EST

So, it is the 23rd, what happened to the big announcement? This thing has me chompin at the bit!

owencocktails

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

jasonC1234 — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 15:41:35 EST

Well here it is, one day before the big announcement we all want to hear. I guess I'm officially holding my breath.

Hey Heartburnkid etc. I don't know where all you guys work, and what kind of business you're in -- but the iPhone is unbelievably great for a guy like me (owner of a small, incorporated, creative-services business). It has unchained me from the desk, helps me stay on schedule, lets me find my way to meetings and take photo-notes when I get there, hooks up seamlessly to my .mac account, etc.

I've only got one employee besides myself, and she's gettin' one tomorrow if this announcement really happens... ($25/month and full-accountability for tax deduction really matters)

jasonC1234

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:35:56 EST

@Transient: I don't know what IT or HR department would approve a $300-$400 phone unless the user actually needed Blackberry-style functionality, but I want to work there.

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

jayuup — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 05:37:50 EST

look, someone is already trying to sell the Windows iphone on ebay...

[cgi.ebay.com]

jayuup

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

Transient — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 02:27:10 EST

Interesting theory. I guess we'll see. Whatever the merits of the iPhone are, there's no shortage of demand from the business sector. For many businesses, style is much more important than functionality and their only function care is the ability to call. They're the folks who are moving up from RAZRs and the like - not people stepping down from Blackberrys and HTCs.

I don't think anyone in their right mind considers it an Enterprise e-mail phone - but don't think for a moment that's the primary concern for all business users.

Transient

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

ISU-Cyclone — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:33:19 EST

There is a company that offers push service for Iphone already. See [vistomobile.com]
Instead of a BES a Blackberry Enterprise Server, they call theirs the VES, Visto Enterprise Server. I'm actually kind of surprised RIM isn't making waves about that.

ISU-Cyclone

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

Wahlman10 — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:11:12 EST

"One of BGR's tipsters have indicated that, come January 21, AT&T will be offering the iPhone to its corporate and business customers. All discounts associated with corporate and business accounts will still be valid - although there may be special iPhone data plans of $25 and higher that will require mandatory subscription. Corporate and business customers looking to bring the iPhone into their enterprise environment will have to undergo a special pre-activation process before activating the iPhone through iTunes."

[www.intomobile.com]

Wahlman10

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

LookitsJ — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:35:23 EST

I'm still under a corporate account number, even with my iPhone. But no discount...id like to see the pricing tiers....

LookitsJ

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

PynkFloydd — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:46:25 EST

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Wow April Fool's is coming early!

Too bad I still can't log into any of my business sites without Java support. Volume discount does NOT equal a business/corporate compatible phone. I guess if you don't TRY to brainwash then people won't BE brainwashed...

PynkFloydd

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

unscriptable — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:24:06 EST

When I called AT&T last June, the rep said that a commercial package would be released in January '08. Looks like they're going forward even if Apple isn't quite ready...

unscriptable

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

chrisfl — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:06:55 EST

If Apple would add better Video-out, Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and a great docking station, then the iPhone would be the Nirvana Smartphone that corporations would gladly pay for.
www.nirvanasmartphone.com

chrisfl

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

bandit — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:04:25 EST

Too bad the phone functionality sucks and now corporate people will not notice that they have voicemail waiting, or that they've missed a call. And during the meetings, they'll be entertained by barking dogs and quacking ducks instead of a ring that sounds like a cell phone. And no vibrate-then-ring option that lets you be polite in meetings but still gets your attention if you don't feel the vibrate so that you don't miss an important call. All easily fixed, but Apple cares more about selling songs and movies than about making a functional phone.

bandit

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

someToast — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:22:08 EST

@Barcard: Now team up with OJ and find the real killer.

someToast

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

ajfili — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:20:46 EST

sorry to break this to you guys... But these plans? Theyre the same plans as before, just $25 more expensive for corporations to have the privledge of using an iPhone. FAN codes still won't apply to the voice plan on any iPhone lines, its only for corporate accounts, and discount is on a per company basis.

ajfili

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

Sevenfeet — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:56:15 EST

Believe it or not, not every large company uses Exchange. I'm hoping my company drops their excuse about no iPhones when the new plan debuts. More than a few of us have asked about it.

Sevenfeet

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

snitch29 — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:53:47 EST

@fastm3driver: iphone has had push email since day 1 from yahoo and guess what its free , it was not working good at the beginning but it is now

snitch29

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

Johnny Chimpo — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:49:27 EST

Oh IE6, I never doubted you'd find ur way onto the iPhone!

Johnny Chimpo

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

Libertariot — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:44:15 EST

@btdown,@HeartBurnKid:

Totally agree. I just had to set one of thee up for the owner of my company (who received it as a gift) and it was royal pain.

Libertariot

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

dagamer34 — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:07:44 EST

yep. where is the 802.1X support? University students are disappointed!

dagamer34

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

Barcard — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:57:48 EST

@Y2KGTP:

Not only do we see a Start button with Windows logo, but isn't that background of a grass covered hill and blue sky with clouds a Windows desktop graphic? That plus "Cingular" above the Start button . . . just how Photoshopped is the image??

Barcard

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

NNTPgrip — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:56:31 EST

@brianhatch: I'd hit that, as fast as my mouse could click "order"

NNTPgrip

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

sorrow24 — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:47:38 EST

Considering the SDK is coming out in February you are pretty much guaranteed to get exchange support in the near future...so yeah, cool beans.

sorrow24

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

brianhatch — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:46:43 EST

This goes along with earlier reports that apple had licensed ActiveSync from Microsoft. They'll probably charge you $10 bucks for the software after the SDK rolls out.

brianhatch

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

lightningrob — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:45:12 EST

Parallels is ridiculous, but a Windows RDC client on the iphone/itouch might actually be useful for meetings. The screen would need to be bigger though.

lightningrob

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

shorty63136 — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:38:21 EST

"a $25 per month corporate discount" implies $25 off per month.

This would be great b/c they took my corporate discount away when I got the iPhone. :(

shorty63136

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:36:37 EST

@BMN: Ummm... hate to tell you, but Cingular is AT&T.

As for this, unless it syncs to Exchange, it's entirely useless.

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

NNTPgrip — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:32:57 EST

I wouldn't hold my breath for true exchange activesync or directpush support. The Exchange dev group doen't even think that the mac is big enough to keep a proper outlook in production, the last one being Outlook 2001. Entourage is a separate team. I doubt they would do this for the iPhone. Now, if they gave Apple all the ins and outs of the protocols, maybe they could license this from MS and code it themselves.

The "Exchange" IMAP setup on the iPhone works pretty damn good for what it is. Of course, I have control of the server, so I enabled IMAP for myself. Not syncing the contacts OTA is no biggie, but the calandar, and especially searching the GAL would be nice. If I cared enough I would go back to my HTC mogul, but I really don't.

NNTPgrip

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

jeblis — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:32:32 EST

Discounts usually depend on your companies deal. I think we get 25% off the voice plan, no data plan discounts on non-iPhones. Hopefully we'll get this discount now.

jeblis

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

tamoko — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:18:57 EST

@Kaiser-Machead: My god that would be weird, but interesting.

tamoko

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

freelunch — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:14:26 EST

nice... now it just needs Lotus support (at least minimal contacts/calendar), and I might finally consider looking at this phone...

freelunch

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

mjmahon — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:09:39 EST

@sgodun: I agree no exchange support really hurts it.

Perhaps they will add it? It says the phone would be the same, but it would just be a firmware change I would think to add Exchange support. I honestly can't imagine businesses adopting it if they have to rely on POP and IMAP for emails.

mjmahon

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:09:29 EST

Too bad AT&T sucks. Maybe Cingular (like displayed in the photo) can have this addition.

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

fastm3driver — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:08:28 EST

no exchange, no office, no 3G, no camera free version, no push email, no a bunch of other crap that people care about but not businesses.
That should go over like a lead Zeppelin.
Maybe if your business is a Apple store employee.

fastm3driver

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

BudMan — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:05:32 EST

This is a known issue the any mac that is running 10.4 or greater and a linksys router. The two companies cannot figure out who is wrong, but the problem can cause the mac to lose connection or the router to completely and repeatedly crash. As far as I have been made aware by both Linksys and Apple, there is no fix other than getting another brand router (other than Buffalo since it's the same hardware anyway).

BudMan

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy! — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:03:25 EST

Parallels? That would be both wickedly cool and grotesque at the same time.

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

NNTPgrip — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:00:44 EST

I wonder if I can switch mine without any penalty(i'm sure at the very least it would restart the 2 years). It's always a pain to hand carry my bill to Accounts Payable and remind the idiot there what it's all about. Then she goes "oh yeah", then I get to hear about how if I had it on the business plan it would be better for them for x amount of reasons. Then she has to get it approved, and I have to initial the thing. Then it still gets paid late half the time.

This is way overdue I say. Now how about letting us put insurance on the damn phone now?

NNTPgrip

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

ripfire — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:59:25 EST

Aww. What about government employee discounts?

ripfire

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

Sihanouk-s-Poodle — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:54:46 EST

OOOOOOoooo Domino!

Lotus, baby!

Sihanouk-s-Poodle

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

slingblade — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:48:24 EST

That phone is still getting CINGULAR? OH MAN. LUCKY BASTARD. Pysche. This has no affect on me. Im not a corporate suit.

slingblade

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

Ow! My Balls! — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:46:28 EST

Fine. Now where the hell's my server upgrade?

Ow! My Balls!

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

svgjjc — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:44:24 EST

Lotus Notes too!
[www.informationweek.com]

svgjjc

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

btdown — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:43:29 EST

Until they have real exchange support AND sync email via OWA, this will be useless!

btdown

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

Mio — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:41:54 EST

Still needs 802.1x support....

Mio

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

fusedinertia — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:41:46 EST

Actually it should be close to $25 a month, for my Moto V3, before I got the iPhone, I used to get $21.00 off a month, which covered my "extra" features. When I signed up for the iPhone I had to agree to remove all discounts from my business account, hopefully with this I get them back since I am still under the same account with the iPhone, yet all discounts are marked as "Not eligible" : /

fusedinertia

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

Spyrojoe — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:40:57 EST

Best photoshop evar!!!

Spyrojoe

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

deepdish — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:39:36 EST

Parallels, now that is funny

deepdish

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

Y2KGTP — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:37:06 EST

I think it's 25$ off, not 25$ per month

Y2KGTP

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

Y2KGTP — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:36:10 EST

Nice start button at the upper left....

Y2KGTP

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

jabba_the_house — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:36:00 EST

hopefully it'll meet the security standards...i have a feeling it won't

jabba_the_house

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

TheConstantGardner — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:34:56 EST

Long awaited....
My Wife will be happy to hear this....
finally, she will stop ogling my iPhone...

TheConstantGardner

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

sgodun — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:34:41 EST

Almost useless without Exchange support.

sgodun

iPhone Getting a Business/Corporate Plan on January 21st

akyiba — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:33:10 EST

Oh no, say it ain't so.

akyiba