6 Iphone misses for BIZ users

The Times of India

Apple's popular mobile phone iPhone just got an upgrade. The new iPhone 3G S offers as many as 100 new features and more than double the speed of the earliest version. Plus, it comes with a price cut.

However, is iPhone 3GS enterprise-ready? Not really feel many analysts. The news may not be so good for Apple, which has been trying hard to compete with Research In Motion's BlackBerry models in the enterprise space. According to analysts while the gadget has got an upgrade in terms of features for general consumers, the upgrade misses on certain key features which are almost a must for any business manager.

Here are the 6 things that may disappoint business users in iPhone 3G S.

Battery life

For business users one of the top priorities in a smartphone is a good battery life. Though Apple iPhone 3GS has improved battery life, many analysts still feel that the model fails to match up to most BlackBerry models.

iPhone 3G S provides up to 5 hours of 3G talk time or Internet use. Apple claims that the new model supports up to 12 hours of talk time, 30 hours of audio, 9 hours of Wi-Fi and 10 hours on video playback.

BlackBerry Storm supports battery life of up to 15 days (standby time) and up to 5.5 hours (talk time).

Security weaknesses

In terms of security too iPhone 3G S has gone several notches up over its predecessor, however, the new device still leaves lot for improvement.

According to many web reviews, iPhone has been hacked far too many times to be considered a secure platform. iPhone's new operating system, OS 3.0, reportedly includes 46 security patches. The majority of the patches are for the iPhone's Safari browser and the WebKit open source browser engine.

On security front, one of the most loved features in the new device is the Remote Wipe which allows users to erase all data from an iPhone that has got lost.

No physical keyboard

Another big miss for corporate users is the absence of a physical keyboard. Though the new software includes a landscape keyboard for Mail, Messages and Notes, however, most business users feel that a slider-style QWERTY keyboard would have been more handy.

Research In Motion's (RIM's) BlackBerry phones pack QWERTY keyboard for easy typing.

Video conferencing

Though Apple has fulfilled a long time wish by enabling the device to record videos, however, iPhone 3G S still lacks front-facing camera for video conferencing.

This means the device is not capable of sending videos across a Wi-Fi or cellular network in real time. This comes as a big disappoinment especially for business users in the age of video conferencing.

No editing in Word Document

Another dampener for business users is absence of editing support for Word documents. This means while iPhone users can read Word documents, they cannot edit it. This again is an area where Apple needs a bit of rethink especially while targeting the device in the business segment.

Unlike iPhone 3G S, most smartphones let users edit Word documents to make changes and send them. However, there are a couple of third-party solutions that may solve this issue.

No Flash

iPhone 3G S also disappoints corporate users looking forward to Flash support in the new version. The latest iPhone too offers no Flash support.

This is a big miss for users who may want to see those multimedia files that require Flash or browse through Web pages with Flash on their iPhones. Earlier, Apple had said that Flash would run too slowly on the iPhone.