Baltimore Sun::iPhone creeping into the workplace!

iPhone creeping into the workplace?
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news...the_workp.html

Have you bought yourself an iPhone for personal use, only to find that
you want to use it for work too? Have you been bugging the I.T. guy
(or gal) at your office to let you sync your iPhone with your work
email?

Apparently, this phenomenon is happening with increasing frequency --
and Columbia-based Boxtone is trying to get ahead of the curve. My
story today about them showed that Boxtone, whose bread-n-butter has
been helping companies manage the BlackBerrys they give to employees,
is now offering iPhone support, too.

The iPhone hasn't had a history and reputation for being enterprise-
worthy, like the BlackBerry -- but that doesn't matter for consumers
who fall in love with the gadget and want to be able to use its email
and Web browsing for their day jobs.

Tech watchers think that companies are going to have to respond to
their employees by supporting the smartphones they want to use --
which could mean bad news down the road for BlackBerry, but good news
for iPhone, Palm Pre and other competitors.

At 19 Oct 2009 12:10:13 -0700 Apple users seem to always get all the neat
stuff - a nice iPhone perk wrote:
> iPhone creeping into the workplace?
>
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news..._creeping_into
_the_workp.html
>
> Have you bought yourself an iPhone for personal use, only to find that
> you want to use it for work too? Have you been bugging the I.T. guy
> (or gal) at your office to let you sync your iPhone with your work
> email?


My wife has. IT told her the same thing they told her when she tried to get
her previous (Windows Mobile) phone on the work network...

"Shut up and use your Blackberry!"

> Tech watchers think that companies are going to have to respond to
> their employees by supporting the smartphones they want to use --
> which could mean bad news down the road for BlackBerry, but good news
> for iPhone, Palm Pre and other competitors.


Or, perhaps, employers will remember that the workplace ISN'T a democracy,
that they control, and are responsible for, the security of their network,
and they can tell their employees to do what they're told.