Gartner Raises iPhone's Enterprise Rating

When the iPhone first launched, research firm Gartner gave it an enterprise rating of "concierge," which much as it sounds, means an IT department must give users of that hardware more assistance, much like a hotel concierge.

On Wednesday Gartner issued a report (purchase, registration required) which raises the iPhone to the next rating level, "appliance" - at least once the 2.0 software upgrade goes live.

The 2.0 upgrade, you may recall, will give the iPhone Exchange support via ActiveSync, which Apple has licensed from Microsoft.

In a press release, Ken Dulaney, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner said:

"In its initial release, the iPhone was, with few exceptions, an Internet tablet with browser-based applications as its main offering, however, the release of firmware 2.0 changes that, enabling enterprises to develop local code and create applications that do not depend on network capabilities. The iPhone will thus match up initially in several segments against its main smartphone competitors — BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian Series 60.

By licensing Exchange ActiveSync and exposing its basic security policies, enterprises can provide sufficient security for iPhone during Exchange personal information manager (PIM) and e-mail use. This will open up a huge market for the iPhone, which previously had been stymied by a lack of basic business security and application functionality. However, Apple must widen distribution and of course deliver what they have promised."

I continue to believe that the lack of a QWERTY keyboard will limit adoption, as despite the text prediction on the iPhone error rates are higher while typing, studies have shown.

The iPhone didn't get Gartner's top support rating, called "platform," for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the enterprise level support (i.e., Exchange support) will be new and relatively untested, but hey, one step at a time.