On this WWDC day

[Tony Scharf]

> Well whether you like it or not control over all aspects usually gives
> you a more reliable product. AT&T provided an controlled testbed to
> bring the platform to market. And while yes I think it should be open
> to all carriers I have never had better service in all my years of
> having a phone with data and voice.
>

Fair enough...but I do prefer a choice in carriers.  Sprint, my
carrier, is the only one that works reliably at my home, my office,
and everywhere I go.   If that were not the case, I would like to know
that I could switch without buying a new phone.

>
> That sound slightly cheap, but you are also using your servers at work
> (at no charge?) for added functionality also?  Tethering - Not
> officially but I would not really want to use that on edge and have
> very rarely had a phone where the provider supported tethering and if
> they did there was a steep cost for it. Plus it helped that the web
> and email experience(blackberry users at work are always jealous how
> well the iPhone displays attachments) it gave me made me not care so
> much about having my laptop around for those type of things. But also
> lets not forget the iPhone is only now being marketed more as a
> business class phone we shall see what happens.

the black berry enterprise server is not needed for the push
technology to work - only for it to work with my work's e-mail.  My
data plan includes everything, and I could use it with my sprint mail
if I wanted to instead.

The tethering is crucial for me, as I need it to do more things than
communication.  I use it to get into my company VPN while I am on the
commute to get a head start on the day, or to get in when I get
support calls on the weekends.

> I have set up and used tons of blackberrys at work - I like them for
> what they are, they are very reliable if hardcore email is the sole
> thing you want them for, but honestly using an iPhone just blows RIM
> out of the water in so many ways in my opinion. Apple is the number 3
> smartphone maker worldwide after just 1 year, and let's not forget
> they are creating new markets.
>

The hard part is going to be uprooting RIM.  they are already well
established in the business market place, and while I will concede
that ActiveSync means you dont need to have a blackberry enterprise
server, its also not nearly as robust and mature as the RIM software
is.  we have very granular control over the devices hooked to our
network - and its really that *SECURITY* that makes the black berry
great in the enterprise.  If an phone is lost or stolen, we can
completely block it out and erase its contents to ensure its not a
security risk.  And it has to do this at a cost advantage that is
going to make companies *want* to change their existing
infrastructure.  Blackberries have become a kind of standard in recent
years, and its going to be very difficult to root them out of it.

And while a lot of companies may be testing them, I'd like to know
what percentage of fortune 500 companies have actually *adopted* them.
Ive tested a hell of a lot more things than I have ever put into
production.

Tony