The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will soon be ditching their BlackBerrys in favor of iPhones and iPads. We’ve seen several examples recently of large enterprises, even major multinationals like Halliiburton, going all-in on iOS, and it’s interesting to see the other half of BlackBerry’s traditional base, government, do likewise.

According to Joseph F. Klimavicz, NOAA Chief Information Officer and Director for High Performance Computing and Communications, they will support the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 running iOS 5 and above.

Going forward employees will no longer be supplied with BlackBerrys but iPhones and iPads instead, though it’s not specified when employees would the change over would begin.

Good enough used to be a mantra for both government and enterprise, and it used to mean user experience. Sure, the software wasn’t the best, but it was good enough, cheap enough, and ubiquitous enough that no one would ever get fired for buying more of it. But that’s begun to change, and Apple, with very little in the way of a business sales force, seems to be instigating that change.

I remember a few years back when I was working in a corporate environment that supplied BlackBerry, we weren’t allowed to use our iPhones even if we purchased them ourselves. RIM had a stronghold when it came to corporate clients. Now those same companies are looking for alternatives, testing iOS and Android and more often than not choosing iPhones and iPads.

Predictability and security are still big for government and enterprise.

Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10 devices will certainly have something to say about that in the future, but with almost all of the Fortune 500 companies already testing or deploying iOS devices in one manner or another, momentum is certainly in Apple’s favor right now.

When you look around the desks and conference tables at your place of business, what devices are you seeing most often?

Source: The Loop

Halliburton, one of the world’s largest energy corporations with over 70,000 employees worldwide, will be making a huge move away from BlackBerrys, and converting their employees to iPhones. For those still not convinced about the iPhone and iOS’ place in enterprise, this decision comes after Halliburton did significant research into both Apple’s platform and the Android, and decided Apple was the way to go.

BlackBerry is undoubtedly still the best communications device on the planet, but increasingly users and businesses alike are requiring more than just communication — they’re requiring mobile computing platforms.

To give a sense of the breadth of this change, Energy Services Group (ESG) is Halliburton’s largest business segment and provides technical products and services for petroleum and natural gas exploration and production. Up until now Halliburton employees had been given BlackBerries. If they wanted an alternative the only option they were given were Windows Phones. BlackBerry have been part of Halliburton’s IT policy for over 10 years. Right now Halliburton supplies about 4,500 of their employees with BlackBerry smartphones.

BlackBerrys have long been the staple of enterprise — they performed well and lived up to what enterprise customers have come to expect. The iPhone and iPad have made great strides over the past several iterations of iOS in order to provide better support for business users. And it’s paying off.

More and more companies are starting to support iOS in enterprise on a regular basis, while others are letting the users choose with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) initiatives.

Apple recently announced that pretty much all of the Fortune 500 were testing or deploying iOS devices within their organizations, which is startling considering how slowly enterprise usually is when it comes to responding to new technologies.

Even RIM has made moves to provide BlackBerry enterprise support for iPhone and iPad. Now we just need RIM’s new CEO to provide full on BlackBerry Connect functionality before other companies, like Good ride iPhone and iPad success to an insurmountable lead.

Are you using your iPhone in the enterprise? Let us know how wide iPhone and iPad deployment is where you work, and how they’re affecting productivity.

Source: AppleInsider

Many big-name companies are switching to the iPhone, and though BlackBerry is the biggest competition in the enterprise arena, iOS is doing a great job of cutting Android out of the picture. According to the latest data from Good Technology,  the iPhone 4S was just as popular new device among businesses as it was among consumers in the last quarter, commanding 31% of enterprise activations. The iPhone 4 has had a bit of a head start, but even then, only accounted for 17.6%, followed by the iPad 2 with 14.9% share. The top Android phone was the Samsung Galaxy S II, which only accounted for 1.7% of Good’s business customers. The data spanned October 1 through to December 31, and included thousands of companies that had at least 5 activated devices.

The Good data also broke down smartphone activity by sector, which showed that 35% of all mobile activations in the last quarter were in financial services, followed by business and professional services at 16.2%. The iPhone 4S specifically managed to be fairly popular in the business and professional services market, snagging 25.7% of all corporate iPhone 4S activations. Unfortunately, Good didn’t have any metrics on BlackBerry activations, but seeing as they’re essentially the alternative to RIM’s enterprise server software, I would wager their BlackBerry activation data would be lower than average anyway.

While Android smartphones were still pulling in more interest than iPads, it was a pretty close race, and combined with the massive popularity of iPhone activations, iOS is firmly planting itself in businesses. I’d love to see some more large-scale studies comparing iOS penetration in enterprise compared to BlackBerry, especially internationally, since RIM claims much of their popularity abroad. Data from November (PDF) suggests iPhone is leading BlackBerry in businesses, but there haven’t been a lot of other studies backing up that research.

How many iPhones are you guys seeing around the office? Is it a common sight, or does BlackBerry still reign supreme? Maybe Android has started to make some inroads…?

Source: Good

I run a company called PXLFIX locally and we specialize in iOS device repair, web development, and consulting. I rely on my iPhone everyday to not only keep my appointments and consultations straight, but as a tool to manage all aspects of my work life. Every iOS upgrade has made it easier and easier to stay organized. And where iOS fails, many third party apps have stepped up to the challenge quite well.

Client management

This is one of the most important aspects of my business. I need a way to sort through contacts and organize them efficiently. Fortunately iOS makes this task easy. I’ve made groups within my Mac address book that will sync across all my computers, iPhones, and iPads.

The ability to be able to send contact cards to clients and business partners is also extremely important. With my iPhone I can simply send a contact card via text or e-mail. I use contact cards not only to store ways to contact a client but notes that I may want to remember later.

Task Management

I’ve always depended on apps like Things or ToDo by Appigo to handle projects and task lists. Since the introduction of Reminders in iOS 5 my habits have changed a bit since Apple has made it even easier to handle tasks without the use of third party apps.

I’m also a die hard iCal user. I frequently use shared calendars and sync all of them across all my devices so I can access any of my information from any computer, iPhone, or iPad. I always had issues doing this back in my BlackBerry days. Either calendars never stayed synced or there was no easy cloud syncing option for Mac users. That’s changed a bit since then but I still find that my iOS has offered better solutions than most other mobile platforms.

Working on the go

Besides using my iPhone for wireless hotspot tethering I have a tendency to need to work on the go or while traveling. Between my MacBook Pro, iPad, and iPhone this has never been easier. When it comes to web development I can use HTML and PHP editor apps on my iPad to make changes to client’s websites on the go. I can also develop websites on my iPad and easily pick up where I left off when I get back to my office on my iMac.

I also use apps such as LogMeIn Ignition from my iPad and iPhone while on the go. If I ever forget to save a file to my Dropbox or Box.net account I can easily access it from anywhere as my iMac is always connected to the internet. Long gone are the days of forgetting files and documents or transferring them via physical media devices.

I can even balance our books and do our accounting functions on the go with QuickBooks mobile. So whether I’m in the office or traveling I always know where we stand and what’s going on back at home.

Payment systems

As a small business we use Square in order to accept credit card payments from clients. The adapter will plug in to my iPhone or iPad and allow me to accept payments on location or from the office. As long as I have a wifi or cellular connection I’m good to go. This is extremely important considering the nature of our business and the need to sometimes take payments at a client’s location instead of our own. This has never been easier with systems like Square or Intuit GoPayments for iPhone and iPad.

Overall workflow

We are a company that has instituted an all Apple eco-system. While our solutions may not work for everyone my iPhone is not only a device I enjoy using but one I heavily depend on to conduct business on an everyday basis. Everything from my reminders to my appointments to my client management and file systems can all be accessed and updated from my iPhone. And where there isn’t a built-in iOS feature to meet my needs I’ve found third party apps that fill that gap.

My iPhone makes my life easier and more stress free on a regular basis when it comes to business. The best part is after the work day is over I can also use my iPhone for play. It really is an all around work and play device that I depend on in several ways each and every day.

As a side note, we will be offering mail-in repairs sooner rather than later. We also do Twitter and Facebook giveaways from time to time as well. You can check us out on our website or on Twitter and FaceBook in the mean time!

Clorox used to give their employees BlackBerrys but when Ralph Loura took over as Chief Information Officer he decided to let employees choose their own smartphone and as a result, they’ve gone 92% iPhone. (They’re also piloting iPads.)

“We live in public cloud for mail and messaging. I don’t have to worry about security because I don’t sync data to the iPhones. It remains in the cloud,” he said.

Apple has been talking a lot about enterprise in recent conference calls, citing impressive deployment and piloting numbers. This has always been BlackBerry (and Microsoft’s) strongest market and something HP will no doubt target with webOS.

Is Apple already entrenching themselves in this non-consumer battleground? If you’re in enterprise, would this work where you work?

[Computerworld, thanks Anthony!]

ZDNET reports that Microsoft has announced that System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2012 will provide remote management for ActiveSync devices… like iPhone and iPad. The successor to Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager (MSCMDM, an acronym that, if spoken out loud, no doubt sends a Superman villain back to the 5th dimension…), it makes you wonder why Microsoft would be expanding to support devices other than their own Windows Phone? Mary Jo Foley answers:

My first thought when I heard that SCCM 2012 will enable management of iPads is that Microsoft may be undercutting its own argument that Windows-based slates and tablets are inherently better because IT managers can’t manage iPads as easily and well as they can Windows-based PCs and devices. If Microsoft makes enterprise management of iPads a key selling point, won’t the company be removing one of the advantages it claims for Windows slates?

Because different Microsoft teams have different masters — and different views of what’s needed to drive their respective businesses — one Microsoft product team may end up doing something that another team may not love. Example: The Bing team is continuing to roll out all kinds of mobile browser enhancements for iPhones and Android phones that Windows Phone 7 users won’t get until the end of this year. Another: The Office team has ported OneNote to the iPhone and may end up moving other Office apps to the iOS platform — a decision that may not be popular with the Windows team, which would prefer Office to remain a crown jewel for Windows users.

Do you manage iOS device in your enterprise? Will this functionality be of use to you?

[ZDNET]

Following a pilot of iPhone and iPad, Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore says there is no going back to BlackBerry:

The result “was a fantastic experience as it was easier/faster to access data (touch UI) than on the Blackberry. It was also great to only have to carry one device for personal and corporate email access.”

They’re using Good [iTunes link] for messaging so users complain about the lack of background email receipt, and they do miss the BlackBerry notification light but the positives “far outweigh these issues”.

Apple reported over 80% of Fortune 100 were piloting or deploying iPad, an unheard of adoption rate for new technology.

For any of you in enterprise, is iOS an option yet?

[Finextra via 9to5mac]

The Wallstreet Journal is reporting that Apple has been poaching sales staff from RIM in order to better compete in the enterprise sector with the iPhone. Some of these converts have been high-ranking members of RIM’s staff.

In the past 18 months, at least five members of RIM’s enterprise-sales team have left the company to join Apple. This includes Geoff Perfect, who served as Head of Strategic Sales at RIM for nearly five years before leaving in April 2009 and joining Apple a month later as Head of Enterprise iPhone Sales, according to LinkedIn, the online networking service for professionals.

In addition, Joe Bartlett, Steve Marshall and Peter Decker from RIM all transferred over to Apple earlier this year.

Although Apple has been making recent headway with respect to the enterprise sector, they’re clearly on a mission to step things up even more. But will taking staff from competition be enough?

[WSJ]

According to a survey conducted by BoxTone Mobile Service Management, Apple’s iPad is becoming increasingly popular with corporations. They recently conducted several webinars to find out what IT departments felt about utilizing Apple’s iPad.

BoxTone recently conducted three large Webinars on the topic of securing and managing enterprise iPads at the point of use. During the Webinars, BoxTone leveraged an interactive polling feature to garner the responses from nearly 1200 IT professionals and line of business executives at more than 800 enterprises, government agencies and Managed Services Providers. Half of the survey respondents were from the Fortune® 100; and nearly one-third of the companies participating in the surveys were in the Fortune® 500. Over 10 percent of all respondents were members of the executive tier and C-suite.

Some interesting findings were that 73% of the surveyed companies intend on deploying the iPad as well as other iOS devices for use on their network within the next 12 months, with 25% of those companies set to deploy right away. More than 50% of those surveyed plan on deploying their own iPad app within the next 12 months, while 25% of those plan on deploying as many as three of their own iPad apps.

It is clear that iPad adoption has been fairly quick on the consumer end and now it looks as though it will be a welcome new addition into the corporate world. As the iPad only evolves in features and specs I can only imagine the growth it will continue to have in both the consumer and corporate markets.

Do you work for a company that has adopted the iPad or other iOS device into its ecosystem? If so how do you utilize the iPad in your daily work? Sound off in the comments below as we would like to hear how your company is utilizing Apple’s revolutionary tablet.

[ BoxTone via TUAW ]

Not sure how I missed this but about a month ago Apple put 9 video podcasts up on iTunes under the title iPhone in Business: Execs talk iPhone. Current episodes all feature Brandon Edling, Director of Desktop Technology for NBC Universal and include: What’s on your iPhone, Interesting Time in IT, Productivity, Workflow and Air Video, Apps, Employees, Deployment, Security, and NBC Universal and iPhone.

For the company that runs iTunes, Apple’s podcast strategy has always been less consistent and more creative, with episodes coming in batches rather than regular intervals, and series dropping off and picking up. It will be interesting to see if they continue iPhone in Business, and what else comes of it.

If you’re into enterprise and/or IT, check them out and let us know what you think.

[iTunes link]

Business and iPad are two words that seem to be coming together more and more often. Apple has now added a couple big business profiles to their site showing what a few of the bigger players experiences have been like since mixing the iPad into their current business routine.

Among them are Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, NYC Prosthodontics, charity: water, and RehabCare. A Hyatt employee had this to say -

“I don’t carry a calculator. I used to subscribe to all the journals: the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times. That’s all disappeared. It’s all on iPad.”

If your business or employer has decided to implement an iOS device into their business model, let us know below as well as how it’s going!

[Apple, via TUAW]

iPhone is being tested at JP Morgan and other large enterprises as an alternative to RIM’s BlackBerry, Bloomberg reports. They have 220,000 employees. UBS AG with 63,000 employees is doing likewise and Standard Chartered Bank will have 15,000 iPhones distributed by end of year.

Cost savings and employee preference were the two biggest factors cited by companies for the shift in the Sanford Bernstein survey. Employees would rather own an iPhone and are increasingly willing to buy the device themselves, which helps cuts costs as companies look to rein in spending, said Sanford Bernstein’s Ferragu.

Wells Fargo previously switched to iPhone and iPad. Enterprise is a momentum game and it looks like that momentum is changing.

Are you using iPhone in your enterprise?

[Bloomberg]

Several companies such as Wells Fargo, Mercedes Benz, and SAP are testing how the iPad can increase productivity within their enterprises. So, not only has Apple sold over 3 million iPads, they’re starting to gain traction into big corporations as well.  Does this mean the iPad isn’t just for reading books and watching videos on YouTube? (If you’re reading TiPb, we’re guessing you already know the answer). 

iPad is a pretty easy device to learn, but at the same time, powerful. iOS as a platform opens the door for companies to not only implement existing apps but to make their own native apps employees can use as well.  I own an iPhone and an iPad.  For quick e-mails and messages, I use my iPhone.  I almost always have an iPad around though, and for looking at Excel files or word documents for work, I’d much prefer the iPad.  With access to services like Box.net and Dropbox, it’s getting easier for employers to allow their employees to take work with them, therefore increasing productivity.

Ted Schadler, Vice President of Forrester Research had this to say:

“This iPad thing has taken the world by storm, …it came in as a consumer product and very quickly the people who actually bought them were businesspeople.”

BlackBerrys have always been known to be business devices, but devices such as the iPad allow a little bit more functionality without having to haul around a full size laptop.  It’s a compromise.  It’s better than a mobile device, but not as obtrusive as a laptop.  What do you guys think?  Could we eventually be given iPads as corporate devices?  For me personally, I live and breathe Excel.  For quick edits and checking numbers, the iPad is fine, but until I can integrate shared and linked workbooks and have VPN access to do so, I don’t think my work will be handing out iPads anytime soon.  I’ll keep crossing my fingers though.

[via BusinessWeek]

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Join Rene, Phil, and Keith for post-iPhone 4.0 event analysis on multitasking, app folders, iBooks for iPhone, Game Center social network, mail enhancements, enterprise enhancements, iAds, and more. Listen in!

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Continuing the long journey begun with iPhone 2.0, Apple has once again raised the bar on Enterprise support for iPhone 4.0 adding better data protection, mobile device management, wireless app distribution, multiple exchange accounts, Exchange Server 2010 support, and SSL VPN support.

More as this develops!

[Image via GDGT]

Apple’s iPhone Configuration Utility went to 2.0 just after the iPhone itself hit OS 3.0. The iCU is intended to allow system administrators to set up iPhones for use in the corporate environments, namely by creating, maintaining, and distributing configuration files for enterprise devices.

Macworld took a look at the new version and while they like the no hassle upgrade from 1.0, new vertical feature setup, LDAP, CalDAV, and SCEP support, the ability to prevent profiles from being removed by the user, restrictions (like parental controls) including locking out the cameras, and the ability to push out profiles via SCEP, they weren’t as thrilled with the lack of SCEP documentation, and limited LDAP support.

Check out the full article for details and if you’re using iCU 2.0, let us know how it’s working for your enterprise.

Daring Fireball is spot on:

The conventional wisdom at the moment seems to be that the iPhone is only a consumer device, but the conventional wisdom is wrong. Think about all the hospital/medical demos from recent iPhone events, for one thing.

We’ve said for a while here that enterprise and business aren’t constrained to sales forces and corporate messengers. Hospitals are big. Schools are big. Entertainment is BIG. The iPhone, especially with iPhone OS 3.0 and the iPhone 3.0 SDK are formidable tools for deploying mobile devices and applications in a wider range of businesses than perhaps anything previously put on the market.

Wall Street might stay with messengers — every job has its best tool — but while Main Street is considering iPhones, and a lot of businesses on every other street might just be as well.

Check out the 80+ page iPhone OS Enterprise Deployment Guide PDF via Apple.com

Apple Insider has been putting two and two together, based on web content and WWDC 2009 session info and coming up with:

Apple will leverage the popularity of the iPhone to deliver business users new Mobile Access services in Snow Leopard Server to securely deliver corporate email, contact, calendar, and intranet web services to iPhone and iPod touch users far more cost effectively than Microsoft Windows Server.

If you don’t mind Mac-centric geekery, check out the full article. Bottom line, however, is that anything that makes Apple invest more heavily in secure business-focused iPhone features, the better for everyone on all platforms.

Fortune has covered Forrester Research’s latest report “Making iPhone Work In The Enterprise: Early Lessons Learned”. Whiplash-much? After all, it does come on the heels of previous reports including “The iPhone Is Not Meant For Enterprises”, “The Top 10 Reasons Why We Recommend That IT Not Support It”, and “Harold and Kumar Don’t Want an iPhone at White Castle”. Okay, we made that last one up. Barely.

This time the people who were crafting link-bait before there were any links to bait have seemingly decided the best bang for their buck is to pull a 180 and, instead of trouncing the iPhone in enterprise, actually support it. Sure, Apple’s increasing development of the OS, including iPhone 2.x and the upcoming iPhone 3.0 could have something to do with it, but even in IT it’s generally more about the artist than the tools. So to speak.

What does Forrester claim makes the iPhone so suddenly worthy?

• Employees like them. “In this era of Technology Populism, where consumer IT is often better than enterprise IT, it sometimes just makes sense to give employees the freedom to choose the tools they want.”
• They make mobile collaboration easier. “As anybody with experience on both iPhones and BlackBerry will tell you, the Internet feels natural on an iPhone and a like a chore on a BlackBerry.”
• iPhone users need less hand-holding. “All three firms have set up wikis so that employees can support each other. ‘Our early adopters sometimes teach things we’d rather our iPhone users not know, but overall they provide better support than we can,’ said one person we interviewed.”
• They can be cheaper in the long run. “In at least one case, an iPhone adopter found that the data plans for previous mobile devices were more expensive than the consumer plans AT&T is offering for iPhones. This company was able to reset its baseline plan pricing 30% lower for all phones because it supported iPhone.”

For an actual iPhone endorsement, some remaining corporate gotchas, and 3.0 redemptioms, check out Fortune‘s coverage or throw $749 at Forrester (if you didn’t just blow that cash on an unlocked iPhone…)

[Thanks to The Reptile for the tip!]

Last year, during the iPhone 2.0 SDK Event, Apple unleashed a slew of enterprise-aimed initiatives. Phil Schiller took the stage to showcase Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync licensing, as well as 802.1x, Cisco VPN, certificates, remote wipe, configuration tools, and more.

Schiller didn’t show up at the iPhone 3.0 Sneak Peek event (not until the apres-Q&A at least), and Apple didn’t announce something as spectacular as Exchange support this year. But was there anything compelling for businesses this time around?

First, it’s important to dispel a common internet smartphone fallacy — not all businesses are the same. Not every business, not even every megacorp, is staffed entirely with suits devoted exclusively to messaging 24×7. Many may be, but not all. Business comes in wondrous diversity, and iPhone 3.0 might have a few things that appeal to these diverse businesses.

• Anti-Phishing. Added to the iPhone Safari browser, this technology hopes to protect users from malicious websites that try to steal login, credit card, or other serious data. As more and more attacks target enterprise users (especially executives via “spear phishing”), more security is better will be a theme we’ll be returning to often.
• Call log: For those who need to document their time and activities on the phone, the greater detail provided in iPhone 3.0 will be welcomed.
• Create meeting invitations: Okay, so iPhone 2.0′s ActiveSync implementation wasn’t exactly full featured, with one of the most often-talked about omissions being the lack of any meeting invitation creation functionality. Check that box off with 3.0.
• Encrypted profiles. We’re not sure what this means for the iPhone yet, but encryption in general — providing it’s strong encryption — is typically of value to businesses that need to protect both their own data, and the data of customers. We do know that iTunes 8.1, in conjunction with iPhone 3.0, allows for password protected encrypted backups. This is a great addition for the very same reason.
• Languages: Business is increasingly international. Thanks to its virtual-keyboard, the iPhone can seamlessly transition from one language to another without requiring a different model or the physical transplantation of keys. Adding in Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Thai, and other new languages to 3.0, to go with Japanese, Chinese, and all the languages added to 2.0, makes the iPhone of even greater value to frequent, multi-national business travelers.
• LDAP: The lightweight directory access protocol is now supported for Contacts, which will allow an iPhone to hook into the enterprise directory store. Apple has it’s own, open-source CardDAV protocol as well, but the focus on LDAP this time around is likely to mean much more to far more businesses right now.
• Notes sync. It was a long time coming, but with 3.0 users will be able to sync notes back and forth between the iPhone and the Mac’s Mail client. Yeah… that’s it so far, but Apple will need to provide a Windows alternative at some point, and we’re hoping for full-on Exchange and MobileMe support as well.
• OTA Profiles: Over the air profiles… yeah, we’re stumped to. Profiles typically imply greater and more specific control, so this could be a benefit, but we’ll need to wait for more information.
• Proxy support. Another expansion to the iPhone’s internet prowess, the ability to use proxy servers will make life easier for businesses that make use of, or require, various types of proxy connections. (And yes, insert Hulu for international users comment here…)
• Revoke certs. Again, details are sketchy, but with 2.0 giving us certificates for 2 factor authentication, we’re guessing 3.0 lets us take those certificates away when and as needed. Again, more options and more security is better for business.
• VPN on demand: Another feature we don’t have details on yet, but with 2.0 Apple provided the ability to connect via secure virtual private network protocols. However, the feature had to be manually enabled and disabled. We’re hoping this makes it a more seamless experience.

Again, there are different types of business. Other new features may be of value to creative professionals, for example, such as YouTube accounts, Audio/Video tags, and live streaming. What’s likely to be of more value to everyone, however, are those 1000 new APIs Apple also announced at the event. These will let businesses themselves create customized, highly functional apps for their specific user needs.

Apple focused on these too, such as the new accessory access for the SDK, which lets peripherals talk to the iPhone via Bluetooth or 30-pin dock port. We saw demos of this being used in the medical field for blood pressure and diabetes instruments. It’s not hard to imagine the iPhone serving as a control, data visualizer, and ubiquitously connected communicator for all manner of special tools.

Hook it up to a scanner, a camera, a car… The possibilities are endless.

In-app email, embed-able Google maps, peer-to-peer (P2P) Bluetooth connectivity, custom data types, and other hooks into the system will no doubt prove invaluable to some businesses as well. Not as sexy as last year maybe, but we’re thinking it could prove to be far more powerful in the long run.

The BlackBerry will probably remain the king of corporate email messaging for now, but Apple’s play for the enterprise market continues to get more compelling, and more importantly, more creative. By providing features and functionality at a pace no other company is matching, and focusing on the many different types of businesses and business needs, their presence and preference in the enterprise will only grow.

With record quarters and more money in the bank than… well, many banks, it’s hard to see Apple getting hit by “hard economic times”, but according to CNet, they either are, or are preparing to be:

Sources who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal confirmed reports by Valleywag and 9to5Mac.com that roughly 50 salespeople were let go by the company for “business and economic reasons,” according to one source. An entire sales group based in Austin, Texas, was let go as well as workers in Cupertino, Calif., where Apple is headquartered. Those affected were given severance packages and the opportunity to apply for other jobs inside Apple.

Hopefully all the workers find those other jobs inside Apple quickly.

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The iPhone already supports standards-based POP and IMAP email accounts, and as of 2.0 supports the big-in-business Exchange format accessed via ActiveSync. But much as Microsoft would like to completely own everythat space, there are several competing corporate communication soluting out there, including RIM/Blackberry’s North American powerhouse, Novell’s Groupwise (which I’m still not convinced Chad didn’t just make up…), and of course, good old Lotus Notes.

Well, if you’re in the latter camp, then IBM has some great news for you:

Bring IBM® Lotus® Domino® email, calendar, and contacts to your Apple iPhone. Planned for delivery in 2008 as IBM Lotus iNotes™ software, Lotus Notes data will combine with the flexibility and connectivity of the Apple iPhone. To be built on the time tested IBM Lotus Domino Web Access infrastructure, users will be able to quickly access email, calendars, and contacts through the rich Apple iPhone user experience.

(For some interesting background on this, check out Apple Insider)

Hey, maybe this news, along with some more accurate analysis, will get Gartner to approve the iPhone for slightly less limited enterprise use! Granted, it’s not the “first class experience” Windows Mobile offers, but it does provide significant — and differentiating — value in its own right (wide screen, multi-touch, media, easy to use, easy to develop for, etc.) which may just suit people in some types of businesses just a wee bit better.

But I digress. Anyone out there using Lotus Notes right now? Eager to try it on your iPhone? If so, how does the functionality look to you? Anything killer? Anything a deal breaker? Let us know!

The hits just keep on coming this morning. Next up, TUAW noticed a few new downloads on Apple.com – specifically they’re iPhone configuration utilities that look to be the perfect tool (until there’s OTA setup) for administrators in companies that have deployed iPhones. There’s a web utility for both Mac and Windows and also a more powerful Mac utility. The basic idea here is you set up a simple file (just XML) with certain settings like:

security policies, VPN configuration information, Wi-Fi settings, APN settings, Exchange account settings, mail settings, and certificates

…then you just load the file onto an iPhone and voila, the darn thing is all set up for business. You can head over to http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/enterprise/ for full instructions on how to use the tools.

[Ed: We're bringing back the Wait-a-Thon and making it regular again. Sorry we dropped it off there for awhile, folks. With all those 3G and iPhone 2.0 rumors flying about these past couple of weeks, it almost felt like the release was already here. In the meantime, comment on any post tagged "Wait-a-Thon" for your chance to win a $100 iTunes Gift Card!]

This is not a response to Crackberry.com‘s excellent article, Top 10 Reasons Why the iPhone Is NO BlackBerry. Quite frankly, the iPhone doesn’t need a response; it’s the rest of industry that’s so desperately trying to find one to the iPhone.

I don’t know about you, but it’s getting more than a little tiring hearing everyone compare themselves to — and constantly try to rip-off — the iPhone. I can’t surf a website or cruise the main without some claw-handed Crackberry addict, neck-bearded Palm artifact, or frazzle-haired WinMob frustrati glaring and frothing with barely-contained envy at the perfectly balanced, seamlessly integrated, lustfully convergent iPhone held ever-so casually in my grip.

They know the iPhone is beyond cool. Sure, they cling to their once innovative, formerly revolutionary (at least in the case of Palm and RIM) devices, the ones overwhelming nostalgia or massive business infrastructure investment won’t let them slam to the ground and stomp into the call-dropping, web-mangling, constantly crashing oblivion they so richly deserve.

So the comparisons to the iPhone just won’t stop, despite the fact that the iPhone is pretty much incomparable. Don’t believe me? I’ve got ten reasons to back me up. And these aren’t minor feature gripes or personal peccadilloes. In proper Apple fashion, these are just 10 simple little words…

10. Communication

It’s right there in the name: iPhone. Steve Jobs said it himself at Macworld 2007: the killer smartphone app is voice. How ironic, then, that so many other smartphones so often kill voice.

Making and receiving calls without my phone freezing or crashing, as my previous device did almost daily, is huge. Unprecedented simplicity in everything from easily finding my way back if I navigate away from the phone app, to elegantly handling call holding, muting, and multiple output sources like Blue Tooth, to effortlessly setting up conference calls is huger still. I can’t remember how often I got lost, couldn’t get calls off my headset, or accidentally hung up on people with the confusing hackjobs that passed for interfaces on my previous smartphones.

The iPhone also introduced desktop-class HTML email rendering and “just the internet”, AJaX powered, standards compliant web browsing, along with interface innovations for SMS, .MAC gallery transfer for photos, and the ability to email YouTube videos, photos, and web links at the tap of a virtual button.

(The browsing is so good, ironically, everyone from Amazon to Facebook to popular blogging plugin makers are providing iPhone-optimized web pages now, lumping every other device into the substandard “mobile” experience or the abortive hell that is WAP).

While some may grumble that this or that power-user feature, or device-specific protocol is missing, Apple has proven they can deliver updates faster and better than anyone in the industry (going from version 1 to 1.1.4, with 2.0 immanent, in less than a year and adding significant capability in the process).

For the user, the interface is the app, and for Apple, their interfaces are remarkably back-end independent. So, if the iPhone needs to improve SMS, or add IM or MMS for now until the differences between desktop and handset protocols evaporate, well Apple’s already got patents pending for that as well.

In the mean time, as most of the iPhone commercials show, having music or video or web pages fade away when your phone rings only to fade right back when your done — that’s truly killer.

Listen up, communication-centric users, especially those who want the internet in their pocket, are all over the iPhone.

9. Media

The iPod is the king of all mobile media, with an over 70% share of the US market. People love them their iPods and Steve Jobs has repeatedly said the iPhone is the best iPod Apple has ever made.

Just look at the stats: up to 16GB of flash storage, a 3.5”, 160dpi wide screen display, and seamless integration with the #1 music and leading downloadable media store in the US, iTunes.

Apple can also extend iPhone media in ways their competitors can only dream. From high-end Final Cut Pro for Hollywood scale video production, to (Mac) desktop Garage Band podcast and ringtone creation, to Apple TV syncing and streaming the same iTunes content to your big screen TV, Apple literally can create, manage, and deploy iPhone media from end-to-end. They can do it easily, and what’s really scary (for the competition) is that this is something the iPhone merely inherited. (Imagine what they might just be preparing for the future…)

No one else, not desktop monopolists, old media stalwarts, or upstart email monsters, even come close.

For media-centric users who don’t want to fill their pockets with a second device just for voice and data, the iPhone’s barrier of entry is zero.

8. Gaming

Though not to anywhere near the extent of media, Apple has been integrating gaming into the iPod — and into iTunes — for years now, and with the SDK Roadmap event, they’re getting serious about putting it on the iPhone as well.

EA’s Spore and Sega’s Super Monkey Ball (among others, including Apple’s homegrown Touch Fighter) were given the spotlight, taking full advantage of the iPhone’s unique video and audio power, accelerometer, and multi-touch controls. Sega even said they’d so underestimate the iPhone’s potential they had to fly in another developer just to crank up the graphics. Wow.

No other smartphone, even today, can boast the 1 year old iPhone’s raw feature set (chips + sensors + inputs + display). As for gaming handhelds, the Sony PSP can’t fully match it (though their dedicated chipsets and vast software library clearly give them a huge advantage… for now). Only the Nintendo DS, which sports touch and mic, is competitive (massive understatement given they’re the sales leader in mobile gaming).

But here’s the thing: while other smartphone are playing copycat and catchup with 1.0, the iPhone is poised to go to 2.0, and while dedicated gaming kits have undeniable advantages, they can’t make cell phone calls, can’t play iTunes media, and can’t do a host of other things the iPhone delivered on day one.

For anyone who wants to game and doesn’t want to carry around a second, dedicated box to go with their media-savvy phone, June will score for the iPhone as well.

7. Business

Make no mistake, the aforementioned iPhone SDK event didn’t only reach out to gamers, it offered a firm handshake to business as well. Exchange ActiveSync (not to be confused with the confusingly named desktop Windows ActiveSync), 802.1x, Cisco VPN, remote wipe, Enterprise “App Stores”, and a host of other features were released as part of the iPhone 2.0 beta.

What’s more, unlike RIM’s technology, which uses a single Network Operations Center (NOC) to handle all Blackberry data transactions — making the service infamously prone to failures and terrifyingly susceptible to security compromises, state-sponsored and otherwise, ActiveSync offers a direct connection between enterprise server and user client. No Chinese or Singaporean RIM-supplied proxy snoopers, no Indian data disconnections. With ActiveSync, each individual business’ server would have to be individually compromised or blocked, a vastly more difficult task.

For Microsoft users worried about a “premiere” experience, having an Apple client may just redefine their concept of “premiere”. And for open-source advocates, Apple’s been their from the beginning, with full support for standards like IMAP, and community-friendly initiatives like CalDAV.

Bottom line, the iPhone is in a unique position to appeal to almost all business-centric users who don’t want to lug around an second or third device just to watch a movie or play a game on the flight home, or call their loved ones when they land.

6. Convergence

Communication, media, gaming, and business. In one or two of these areas, other devices currently have an edge. That is, if you’re happy with the idea of carrying around a feature phone, iPod Touch, Nintendo DS, and Blackberry all strapped to your utility belt (I’ve been there and it wasn’t pretty!).

Convergence, however, doesn’t begin or end with just the iPhone. As we touched on before, Apple is the first, and so far only company to truly deploy spherical integration across their product line.

Apple designs its own hardware (iPhone handset), engineers its own operating system (OS X) and software (built in apps like MobileSafari Touch and the Google Maps client), creates its own accessories (docks, media cables, headsets, etc.), offers its own ecosystem (from Macs to the Apple TV, from iLife to Leopard Server), sells them all in their own retail Apple Stores (which bested Tiffanies last year in earnings per square foot), handles their own carrier activation via iTunes, provides value-added services (iPhoto books), runs its own cloud services (.Mac) and ties into other cloud service providers (Google search, Yahoo! weather), offers the #1 music marketplace in the US (iTunes), which also provides TV, movies, and a staggering amount of free audio and video podcasts, iTunes University, and other free content, and is about to be joined by the App Store, which may just do for 3rd party App sales what iTunes did for music.

Verizon commercials like to show a virtual network of technicians following its users around everywhere they go. Just imagine that commercial with Apple’s 360 degrees of integration backing up every iPhone user.

When it comes to convergence, nothing else matches the current iPhone’s capabilities, never mind its next-generation potential. Anyone looking for the “one device to rule them all” will find it all elegantly wrapped up in only one package: the iPhone.

5. Development

Okay, numbers 8 and 7 — and thus 6 — are still in beta. Fair enough. But what’s driving that beta is an SDK the likes of which has never been seen before in the mobile space.

Sure, some platforms use Sun’s “Compile once… er… often.. run anywhere” Java language/interpreter, or Microsoft’s Windows-in-name only kit, and others delve deep to the metal on Palm’s sold and bought-back and locked-in-stasis OS.

Apple, much as they miraculously managed to cram a UNIX-based OS, BSD networking, Open GL, and other desktop class systems into the iPhone, also delivered a remarkably mature, surprisingly polished SDK based entirely on their existing Mac Objective C and Cocoa (dubbed Cocoa Touch for the iPhone) architectures.

Far from the afterthought or hurried response partisan pundits paint it, thanks to Steve Jobs’ legacy from NeXTStep, its frameworks, and its processor independence (it’s run on PowerPC, x86, and now Arm), Mac developers instantly gained the ability to dive right into the system, while those familiar with other flavors of C quickly ramped up thanks to powerful tools like X-Code and Interface Builder.

(It was stated repeatedly during the SDK event that demoes were produced in just two weeks, mostly by developers who’d never touched Objective C before in their lives. Amazing.)

A desktop-class OS with desktop-class development tools leads to something no other smartphone maker has ever been able to deliver to consumers before: desktop class mobile Apps.

Even a cursory look at who’s announced development plans for the iPhone reveals an impressive list of real companies making real apps… maybe even Microsoft and RIM.

Combine all this with a serious attitude towards security, ensuring the platform doesn’t become unstable or an easy target for malware, along with an unprecedented delivery system in App Store — which will put every App in front of every iPhone user, including free Apps for free, and numbers 8, 7, and 6 might actually underestimate the iPhone’s ultimate appeal.

Basically, anyone who wants to run anything on the next great platform wants an iPhone.

4. Design

While software may sell systems, when electronics became mainstream consumers began to shop not only with their brains but with their senses and their tastes.

And if there’s one thing Apple has plenty of, it’s taste.

From the translucent berry-colored iMac and clamshell iBook that re-ignited Apple’s consumer push, to the iconic brushed-aluminum, rounded-rectangular slab that all but makes the computer disappear inside the ultra-thin current iMac, MacBook Air, and iPhone, Apple (or more specifically, the team led by perennial design award winner, Jonathan Ive) seems to hold the magic formula to modern, drool-inducing, industrial design.

Indeed, Apple has not only shaped this electronic generation, it’s shaped the design path of many of it’s copiers… er… competitors as well.

Let’s face it, for a long time garish gray or neon paint over chintzy plastic bodies that looked at though they were assembled from old lego parts with build quality straight out of the Soviet salvage committee were all consumers had to choose from. And, as the saying goes, while consumers don’t always notice good design, they sure do notice it’s absence. Apple knows this, just like they know for good design to be great, it has to be functional.

See, it’s not that Apple “just works”, it’s that Apple designs things, from first transistor to final trim, to “just work.”

Why else, at this very moment, would Jonathan Ive be jetting between NASA and Shenzhen finalizing some futuristic, light and yet durable stealth-like composite that will form the outer shell of the next most lusted-after consumer electronic device — the iPhone 3G?

So that when consumers see, touch, and use it, it’ll be just like the first iPhone — what they want.

3. Usability

I have a two-and-half-year old godson who, first time he picked up the iPhone, figured out how to navigate in and between photos, effortlessly type his ABCs and 123s on the soft keyboard, play with his numbers on the calculator, tap to show and hide video controls, use the camera, flick through the weather, and transition between them all with the solitary hard button on the device face. And not only that, he enjoyed it so much he wants to do it again and again (and again!) every time I see him. (If Apple would just add dial-by-photo, I swear he could call me on his own already).

Give him any other smartphone and you know what he could figure out? How to use it as a building block or a projectile (and with my luck, the latter). A quick search of YouTube will show he’s not the only infant interfacing with the iPhone either.

We’ve seen a lot of iClone skins and sku’s, attempts to duplicate the most superficial aspects of the iPhone, but what few competitors understand is that its not the gradients and transparencies, not the special effects and animation that make the iPhone’s software revolutionary — it’s the user experience.

Sure, I could lecture on about how animation hides transition, allows for error recovery, lends analog comfort, taps into intuitive understanding, and makes use of precious space in truly Tog-worthy fashion, but what’s the point?

Apple has made the smartphone so elegant and easy that a two-and-half year old not only can use, but really wants to. And they’ve done the same thing for adult consumers.

2. Brand

The little forbidden fruit with a bite out of it ranks up there with Superman’s S and the Golden McArches as one of the most recognized brands in the world.

Apple brought the first consumer computers to market with the Apple II, the first consumer GUI machines to market with the Mac, the first consumer MP3 (AAC if you want to get technical) players to market with the iPod, the first consumer music download service to market with iTunes. And in so doing, they’ve earned a reputation for cutting-edge, consumer-driven innovation.

Sure, Blackberries have their addicts, but the cult of apple is legendary and, as outlined before, far wider reaching than just the smartphone space. You can’t buy that kind of brand projection, trust, or loyalty (just ask Microsoft).

When Apple negotiates innovative features like Visual Voice-Mail, pressures carryings to lower data rates, gets Starbucks and AT&T to stop gouging and start giving away free WiFi at their hotspots, their brand is leveraged to benefit consumers.

When Apple Care or the Apple Store swaps out a 8GB iPhone with one dead pixel for a 16GB replacement, or instantly commands a managerial intervention for any unsatisfied email response, their brand is being protected to consumer advantage.

Other smartphone makers, who worry less about their lesser brands often abandon you the moment your credit card clears, or dump you to outsourced OEM ping-pong at the first sign of trouble. Is it any wonder the iPhone continually tops user satisfaction surveys?

1. Leadership

Apple is far from the sales leader in the smartphone space, yet they’ve instantly become the de facto market leader. When every other company is racing to copy Apple’s hardware and interface, and all competitive product releases are tripping over each other to proclaim themselves the iPhone (or Apple) Killer, they can’t be doing anything else but following.

Palm almost patented Zen with their original Treo, but then they got comfortable and stayed there, with the original Treo, long after the world — and technology — moved on. Blackberry made mobile email so addictive it’s likened to a drug (and for the record, please don’t drop and drive), but buried their head so far up their email they seemingly forgot about everything else. And Microsoft… well, if Zen has an opposite, it’s Windows Mobile, an OS whose power is matched only by its legacy handicaps and user impenetrability.

So now Palm is raiding Apple talent. RIM either wants to be the iPhone or just on it. And even die-hard Windows Mobile pundits have given up on Microsoft’s ability to deliver on even their most realistic of vaporwares.

That leaves Apple, alone atop innovation mountain. And luckily, that’s just where one Steven P. Jobs likes to meditate.

It’s impossible to discuss Apple’s leadership without discussing its leader. If any one factor encompasses Apple’s (and the iPhone’s) current success, it’s the CEO. Perfectly melding unsurpassed customer savvy with unequalled industry prescience, his singular focus and uncanny aesthetic have not only brought Apple back from the brink, but made it the greatest second act in tech history.

It’s largely due to Steve Jobs that no one else has, or can come close to the iPhone. Who else besides Jobs or Apple could sit on something like the iPhone for close to 3 years without so much as a peak or a peep. Who else could ditch the floppy one generation (iMac) and the optical disk the next (MacBook Air)?

Every great artist (like Johnny Ive’s design team) needs a patron and every benevolent dictatorship (like Apple Inc.) needs its guiding mind. As long as Apple has Steve Jobs, the competition can try to copy iPhone 1.0 all they want. Jobs is already putting the final, tiny touches on 2.0 and has his sites firmly set on 3.0 and 4.0. And that’s fine because Apple — as it proved when it killed the iPod Mini and replaced it with the Nano — is really the only one who can compete with Apple anyway.

Jobs has always said Apple makes the devices they themselves want to use. Well, they make the devices an ever increasing amount of consumers want to use as well.

Conclusion

So, there they are. The top ten reasons that every other smartphone maker on the planet keeps comparing themselves to the incomparable iPhone. Come WWDC in June, the official SDK release, and — dare we guess? — iPhone 3G debut, it’s only going to get worse (and harder!)

What do you think?

[Ed- Digg link...]

We already told you that Apple threw a brick-stuffed glove down on RIM’s foot with their Enterprise plans during the iPhone Software Roadmap event. So it’s only natural that it would be the topic du-jour for the next CrackBerry.com Podcast (iTunes link).

They invited yours-truly on to talk about the SDK and Apple’s enterprise plans and it’s a pretty comprehensive chat. Fun too — even though I led us down a couple of somewhat unnecessary forays into Windows Mobile (hey, I still use and love that too).

Anyhow, if you’re jonesing to hear what BlackBerry fans are thinking about the iPhone, it’s definitely worth a listen. Also worth noting: if you’re wanting to get all the Smartphone Experts podcasts (TreoCentral, CrackBerry.com, WMExperts, and Phone different) in a single feed, we have that up on iTunes now as well.

Podcast Episode 003 – RIM's New Enterprise Challenge | CrackBerry.com

When the iPhone and iPod Touch first shipped, many eager big business users and university students snapped up the “breakthrough internet devices” only to find that, because the iPhone and iPod Touch didn’t support the 802.1x protocol, they couldn’t connect to some very large Wi-Fi networks.

Posts piled up on Apple’s Discussion Boards, feature requests and bug reports flooded in (I know I sent one!), and, as of the SDK Roadmap event on Thursday, Apple has listened! 802.1x has been announced for firmware 2.0!

But what is it and why’s is it so important?

Let’s say you bring home a Wi-Fi router and plug it in, then find out that, because you didn’t put any type of security password on it, your neighbor has been stealing your bandwidth.

So you try WEP (wire equivalent privacy), but since it was designed by engineers and not cryptographers, your rascally neighbor can just download a little utility from the web, crack your security in under a minute, and start torrent’ing away again on your dime.

Finally, you switch to robust WPA(2) (Wi-Fi protected access) along with a monster 64 character Gibson-certified pseudo-random password and, d’oh, your neighbors locked out and the cheapskate has to pony up for his own broadband.

Now let’s say instead of your home, you’re running a business or academic institution with thousands or tens of thousands of users. You can’t just slap on a password (even a secure one), because you’d have to give it to each of those users, who could then just tell their friends, and there goes security. Worse, from an administrative perspective, anytime someone left your business or institution, you’d have to change the password and get the new one to tens of thousands of users. Nightmare.

That’s where 802.1x comes in. Rather than the router using a single ID with a single, common password, 802.1x allows for an authentication server to be running, and thus enables more powerful, flexible, and manageable Wi-Fi for very large networks.

With 802.1x any one of tens of thousands of users can connect to the authentication server, pass along a set of credentials, and be allowed onto the network (or rejected if the credentials fail).

And with late June’s 2.0 firmware update, tens of thousands of users will be doing just that, at long last, on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

During the iPhone SDK Roadmap event today, Apple strolled up to RIM, slipped out a glove, dropped a brick into it, and slapped out one “boom” of a challenge.

Blackberry is an email monster, no doubt about it. Intoxicating “push” delivery and back-end IT administration have made it the darling of the enterprise world. But it isn’t without problems: due to the centralized server-model RIM utilizes (where all mail is collected by RIM prior to being pushed out to end-users), there’s a single point of failure for all Blackberry users everywhere (as seen in two recent, service-wide outages) — and a single point of exploit as well (where an attack on RIM’s server could compromise the privacy and security of the entire user base).

Read on for more!

Apple is eager to exploit this weakness — so eager, in fact, they went right into the belly of the beast itself: they licensed Microsoft ActiveSync to provide direct Exchange support for iPhone.

Come the iPhone (and iPod Touch) 2.0 firmware update targeted for a late June release, every user will be able to enjoy instant “push” access to a wide gamut of Exchange services, including:

• Push email. Write a message, it appears instantly (web congestion notwithstanding) on another Exchange user’s client.
• Calendar integration. Add an event and, “boom”, it’s in Exchange.
• Push contacts. Create or update a contact and everyone sharing gets the update right away.
• Global address list. You get your company’s contacts, updated live all the time.
• Enterprise level security. Including Cisco IPsec VPN, authentication and certificates, 802.1x, policies, configuration tools, and remote device wipes.

Still not convinced Apple has slid up to RIM’s lunch, fork in hand? Phil Schiller, VP of Marketing, displayed a nice slide showing iPhone’s simple Exchange connection (iPhone – Exchange) compared to RIM’s more complex model (Blackberry – NOC – Message Server – Exchange).

“Microsoft has come up with a much more advanced architecture, where the iPhone can work directly with the Exchange server in a more reliable and affordable way.” (Engadget)

ZING!

“You should ask [RIM if Apple is sending them a message]… we’re not sending them a message, we’re sending customers and developers a message that we’re trying to serve their needs.” (Engadget)

POW!

“Why aren’t CIOs really worried about security? Every email message sent to or from a RIM device goes through a NOC up in Canada. Now, that provides a single point of failure, but it also provides a very interesting security situation. Where someone working up at that NOC could potentially be having a look at your email. Nobody seems to be focused on that. We certainly are.”

BOOM!

Bringing up Nike and Disney, while a little nepotistic given the relationships, as well as pointing to academic institution Stanford, put some real-world business deployment on the table. Apple sure does seem serious.

So, should RIM worry? Will legions of CrackBerry addicts give up their hardware keyboards and defect, en-masse, to Apple’s Mobile Platform? Or are they immune to the famed Reality Distortion Field, and laughing even now at Apple’s eye-candy attempts to woo IT? Is Gruber right, “This doesn’t make the iPhone a BlackBerry killer, but the iPhone can do more BlackBerry-ish things than the BlackBerry can do iPhone-ish things.” What do you think?

Thursday brings the SDK. You know, the one that needs no other identifier. The one that the entire tech-verse has been chomping at the bit for since roughly 0.001 seconds after Steve Jobs slipped the iPhone from his pocket at Macworld 2007.

But that’s all we know: SDK Event March 6th.

We don’t know whether the SDK will be ready to code that very same day, who’ll be given access to it, how they’ll test for it, what type of approval process Apple will require, how apps will be distributed, how they’ll be priced, and most importantly for the end user: whether or not “OMG teh iPhone can has WoW!!11”

However, that doesn’t stop us from guessing!

Trying to predict what Apple will do at any given event is a little bit science and a whole lot black magic (of the 8-ball variety). Let’s face it: the Apple Campus at 1 Infinite Loop could teach the NSA a thing or two about how to keep secrets.

Why is Apple so close-lipped? Equal parts competitive advantage (Apple prefers that it takes Microsoft years and not months to copy their latest innovations), marketing strategy (how else to get the “faithful” lined up at 3am, and the ‘net brought to a crashing halt before every Jobs Note?), and making bloggers and pundits who write “prediction” articles look silly the day after.

In that spirit, here we go:

Will the SDK be finished and ready to code with on March 6th?

While I’d like nothing more than for Steve Jobs to take the stage, Tap Tap Revolution in hand and ready to ship on Day One, I doubt it. Rumors say the SDK will still be in beta, and while it may go out early to Electronic Arts-class partners, with a later drop to ADC members (who may be able to run tests via a “simulator”), I don’t think we’ll see it officially released until Apple’s Word Wide Developers Conference in June.

Chalk it up to limited resources meets high security demands (for a mobile computer storing all your personal data and documents), further complicated by Apple’s obsessive need to control every little aspect.

How much access will developers have to the hardware?

The l33t hax0rs want to write to the metal: their Guitar Hero axe plugged into the dock connector rocking out over Skype while VNC’ing to their torrent server. Apple wants certified developers writing superficial games and productivity apps that don’t for a single moment harshen the Zen-like beauty and user experience of their hand-held gift to the world.

We’ll likely see something in between. Developers will be able to access the same protocols already surfaced via custom links (i.e. the phone, the web, email, perhaps the QuickView-like functionality), as well as things like the accelerometer and camera to allow for more interactive gaming.

The mic would enable both voice recording and Nintendo-DS style cloud-blowing action, but would also open the door to VoIP, which would delight users but could make Big Telco grumpy (do it, Apple!).

According to previous reports, the dock cable will be off-limits, which would mean no hardware keyboards or other peripherals, but Apple already has an extensive dock licensing program in place where developers could explore those options, and if the Bluetooth radio is made available, the Apple Bluetooth Keyboard would be one sweet ultra-mobile option! (And if the WI-Fi radio is there as well, goodbye Apple Remote and hello iPhone to control Apple TV and iTunes!)

And I don’t see carriers letting anyone run wild over the EDGE radio.

Also, I agree with The Gruber that there will be different levels of developers granted different access to the hardware, from very close, very trusted partners (like the aforementioned EA) given very broad privileges, and free ADC members getting more limited access.

Bonus prediction: Longtime Mac developers will initially be given the “limited access” snub, leading to an explosion of blog-rage, resolved by a price-drop-esque Apple-a-culpa and policy change.

How will applications be made available?

Almost certainly via an initially very stringent Apple certification process and distribution exclusively via iTunes.

Let’s face it: Apple spent an incredible amount of time and money on the iPhone user experience and they’re going to demand just as elegant, easy to use, and (cough MobileSafari cough) stable apps from their 3rd parties.

Likewise, iTunes is the little store that could (pass Best Buy to become the #2 music retailer in the US, that is). If Apple could force Big Telco to hand over cell phone activation to iTunes, I don’t for a minute think they’ll let just any old Eastern European 11 year old install wild on their box.

Music sales have shown that there is a market for simple, safe, and secure online transactions with iTunes, and the $20 iPod Touch mail, notes, maps, stocks, and weather apps strike me as just that type of proof-of-concept.

That same $20 update also raises the question of whether or not there will be a way for developers to make their applications available for free via iTunes? I think so. Apple has shown they understand the benefit of provide free content with Podcasts, iTunes University, iTunes Free Tuesdays, and free promotional videos (recently for American Idol). 3rd party apps could and should benefit from the same type of enlightened thinking.

Anything else?

A handful of “booms”, three “the best”, and a “gorgeous”. One C-level 3rd party exec up on stage. Non-licensed Exchange support.

(Now go forth and, if past predictions are any indicator, enjoy watching Jobs bring a developer-friendly Balmer and much-relieved Carmack up to show off the ready-to-ship Mobile Office 2008 suite, and Quake running over EDGE via dock-connected rumble pad).