iOS 4 Arrives Today, Will Regulated Companies Benefit Tomorrow?
Will iOS 4, arriving today, really usher iPhones and iPads into the enterprise? Better security and enterprise management features should benefit heavily regulated industries, although previous iPhone OS upgrades did much of the heavy lifting, say some in the Apple ecosystem.
CIO — Apple's iOS 4, formerly known as iPhone OS 4.0, has just been released. Consumers are downloading the much-anticipated operating system that brings a boatload of new features, such as multi-tasking apps, folders, better email management, camera zoom, iBookstore, home screen wallpaper, and wireless keyboard support.
On the other side of the aisle, CIO's eye iOS 4's deep enterprise support. iOS 4 brings wireless distribution of in-house apps, app and email data protection, mobile device management upgrades, and support for SSL VPN via apps from Juniper and Cisco.
It's a smorgasbord—an OS upgrade for everyone.
But will iOS 4 usher the iPhone and iPad into the enterprise? Not so much, says CEO Jayaram Bhat of Zenprise, a developer of mobile management software tools. Technically speaking, he says much of the heavy lifting was done by previous iPhone OS upgrades, mainly iPhone support for Active Sync and security policies.
iOS 4 merely adds to this foundation, Bhat says, which should lead to greater adoption in heavily regulated industries.
CIO.com talked with Bhat about iOS 4, iPad adoption, and the ongoing battle between the iPhone and the BlackBerry for the enterprise.
Q: How will iOS 4 impact enterprise adoption?
A: It adds a lot more enterprise-friendly features, particularly device management. This will allow our management software to be even more effective. But no one was waiting for iOS 4.0 to come out before adopting iPhones in the enterprise, except for maybe heavily regulated companies.
[ Varian Medical, a Zenprise customer, told CIO.com that it's hoping iOS 4 can solve lingering security, reliability and management concerns before allowing iPhones in the hands of heavily regulated field service personnel. ]
iPhone 2.0 and particularly 3.0 gave them sufficient features to start using iPhones in the enterprise. We started seeing a lot of interest in iPhones ever since iPhone OS 2.0 came out, which supported Active Sync and security policies.
With iPhone 3.0, security policies can be set up in Exchange and exported to the iPhone. The underlying mechanisms exist to enforce those security policies. iOS 4 will just make it much easier for the iPhone to be adopted into heavily regulated companies.
Q: Will iOS 4 help with iPad adoption?
A: To be clear, the iPhone is still very small in the enterprise. iPhone came out in 2007, and it's only in the last year that the iPhone is starting to enter enterprises in reasonably significant numbers. But iPad adoption is actually faster. It's only been out a couple of months, and we're already seeing it.
