ITaP (short for Information Technology at Purdue) is offering advice for potential buyers of the iPhone: Wait. According to Frank Wolf, Mac specialist and systems administrator for ITaP:
“The iPhone is still being considered by many to be a revision-one product when thinking about it in an enterprise. I recommend to the people we support that they hold off on getting an iPhone until the next revision is released.”
Here’s more of his reasoning as to why you should wait:
“Early adopters run a risk of getting left out of more enterprise-friendly features of future releases. The next version of the iPhone is rumored to be 3G-capable, which would bring faster cellular network speeds.”
And he’s not the only one from Purdue’s IT department saying to wait. Julie Kercher-Updike, associate vice president for ITaP, says, “If your primary use for a device is for a phone, Internet access on the go, and reading e-mail, then the iPhone is a pretty slick device. If you want to have up-to-the- minute calendar access, then the iPhone might not replace your Blackberry just yet.”
Apparently, synchronizing the iPhone with enterprise Outlook or Entourage calendars is a hassle and includes some manual processes: “Campus computer users who want to use a handheld device primarily to check and schedule meetings probably will want to continue using a device that synchronizes wirelessly like a Blackberry or other Windows-compatible mobile device.”
Another problem is that the iPhone doesn’t support 802.1x, which makes it so the device doesn’t work with the latest client for accessing Purdue’s wireless network.
This shouldn’t be a big surprise to anyone used to new technology. It’s difficult enough to create a breakthrough product, let alone have it interface properly with existing infrastructures. But that isn’t to say that the trade off of having the latest gadget isn’t worth it to some people. It is. But for the rest of us, here’s to the second generation of tech products.
