iPhone goes corporate: AT&T announces business plan
By Thomas Ricker 
posted January 21st 2008 3:07AM
posted January 21st 2008 3:07AM
Without a 3G iPhone announcement at MacWorld, Apple remains focused on increasing the penetration of their generation-one handset. True to the rumors circulating the intertubes last week, AT&T is now offering the iPhone to business customers. Plans break down as follows: - 2 year commitment, voice service, and data plan required
- $45 per month for unlimited data, visual voicemail, and 200 SMSes; $55 ups the SMS limit to 1,500; $65 for unlimited everything
- An extra $25 per month nabs a 20MB monthly data plan good for 29 countries, $60 per month ups the limit to 50MB
- Activate by 31 March and qualified accounts will receive a service credit of $25 per month good through 31 December, 2008 -- yeah, that's a sweet deal
[Thanks, Brandon B.]
Lotus Notes? What about Exchange/Activesync? :(
Lotus Notes? DOS?
Anyone have any tips on getting AT&T to let me do a family plan with at least 3 iPhones but with two or three different area codes?
I've heard they don't allow different area codes but they only do on the Business Plan (which they didn't over for the iPhone until now....)
I wonder which company will jump to iphone when they can buy a blackberry.
James: Realplayer porn?
1) No IT Management Utility
2) No Encryption
3) No password forcing to end user.
Any CIO, or Network Engineer will notice the Security Ramifications this can cause.
No, no, and no iPhone for you.
Not true my CIO/Network Engineer has an IPHONE for his business phone and is and APPLE FANBOY you would think he would be smarter...
Thankyou @ThirdMoose, that was more a on topic reply I was hoping for...to compare it with a possible introduction to the iPhone...which if you would compare it to other similar devices is way overpriced, they (Apple and fans) say it's better and part of a bigger all in one solution..well then it should be cheaper..because if it offers an all in one solution..you can make savings on a whole lot of development costs...
I handle the billing for my companies cell charges and i believe the only reason why you would choose these plans is if u want your company name on your account so it can be payed by them easily. I have execs that have to expense these huge 3K bills b/c when they signed up for this they didn't realize the contract was in their name not the corp account(real genius of them) and at the time AT&T wasnt offering corp discounts anyway. They seem to still not be but at least itll be a corp account which actually doesn't give u any perks besides lotus it seems.
The only reason to get a corp acct is b/c of corp discounts or easier billing.
This just doesn't make any sense for anyone.
For all those "excuses" that people tout for reasons not to offer iphone is corporate are all laughable false (okay, unless you work for the NSA, or the CIA the camera one is real)... the bottom line is IT fought tooth and nail not to bring Blackberry's - conveniently forgotten now. That's why reason after all this time, there are really less than 15 million Blackberry users - the wiping and security is just a good front (really? corporate can magically erase a $19 AT&T phone from their desk?). The bottom line is 90% of IT now is the DMV of technology. They are supposd to service and support YOU but instead are just bureaucrats treating you as the main hinderance to them getting anything done - if only the didn't have to deal with YOU - forgetting who pays their paycheck.
Most of the policies that the users in our company hate (no IMAP/PoP3 access, no e-mail retention beyond 21 days, new complex password every 30 days, etc) were dictated to us by the legal department. As usual though, IT is the lightening rod.
It's easy and fun to blame IT for all of your tech woes, but the IT depts at many companies I have worked for just implement what the people on the top floor tell us to do.
If they say they want remote wipe and wireless sync with exchange on all smart phones we distribute, then unfortunately, the iPhone, in it's current state, is out.
Must emphasize further! Exchange/Activesync or else no thanks iphone.
As an admin for a fortune 100 company that directly supports mobile devices I can tell you any company with any sense will ban the iphone until it supports basic security, it's been outlined enough that encryption, password, remote wipe are the "standard" most companies want to see. Have you people not read the lawsuits for lost company data? So YOU users can whine and complain all you want how we BLOCK cool gadgets .. WE are paid to protect companies from data leakage and potential security risk.
If Apple has any remote interest in being in the corporate market they need to intergrate with Blackberry BES and Exchange ActiveSync. Considering Apple is mostly an entertainment entity it's not apple to apple .. Iphone is not a Blackberry and vice versa.
*marked as inaccurate*
iPhone does not go corporate. Show me the Exchange support...oh wait.
The Iphone is not a good business tool. Being in IT I can tell you confidently that hardly, if any will use the Iphone as a real business.
No exchange support will completely cripple the device. This is the biggest reason. 95% or more of companies use exchange.
You can't type nearly as good or fast on an IPhone that you can on say a Blackberry or treo.
It's incredibly expensive for a device that's inferior to other companies business needs.
Does anyone have information on if the iphone will run a program called "Citrix". Citrix is used to access my work PC on an exchange server? I would then have access to a shop software called Jobboss.
The people at the Apple store couldn't help, they don't have the practical experience.