How much can your business trust Apple?

Not that I’m a big fan of outrage, but in the name of consistency, shouldn’t there be some about Apple’s new iPhone connector — the one that renders all of your accessories obsolete should you update to the iPhone 5 and, as soon as Apple can release them, to every other latest-and-greatest iDevice?

Had Microsoft engaged in shenanigans like this, the protest would have been pandemic. We know this because of the widespread indignation felt in 1997, when the new version of Microsoft Office made the old Office file formats obsolete.

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Yes, there’s an adapter. With it, some but not all accessories work with the iPhone 5, in contrast to the software adapter Microsoft provided at no charge for everyone who had licenses for previous versions of Office, which converted everything just about perfectly. (The offense people took over Microsoft’s switch from the toolbar to the ribbon was, in contrast, entirely justified … but I digress.)

For those who prefer to leave outrage to the professionals — the political radio and television shouting class — Apple’s decision to “update” its connector to a new, proprietary replacement instead of the ubiquitious mini-USB alternative leaves those of us who work in business organizations with an important question: Can we entrust any part of our enterprise technical architecture to Apple?

Assessing Apple’s credibility with business customers

This isn’t about Apple’s mostly excellent technology; it’s about the company. When vendors choose to ply their IT wares to business organizations, their customers have every right to expect continuity — that changes, especially interface changes, will happen only when there’s a good reason, and the vendor will support older products and versions for a considerable period of time.

IBM is probably the most extreme example of this. Last I looked, Big Blue still supported OS/2, which nobody has cared about for a decade or more, and IMS, which was hopelessly obsolete by 1990.

But IBM’s customers are just that: customers. Their relationship with IBM is businesslike, based on mutual benefit. Apple, in contrast, is accustomed to its customers being fanboys, willing to forgive just about everything in exchange for being allowed into the Cool Kids Club.

By itself, the Apple connector issue isn’t that important for business organizations because I doubt very many enterprises have invested heavily in gadgets that rely on the connector. What matters is the thought process that led to the new connector. What we can infer is that when it comes to respecting specifications its customers rely on, Apple can’t be counted on to do so.

What can a business do when adopting Apple technology? The right response isn’t to ban Apple technology from the enterprise. It would be, if we were to base our decision on outrage. But business choices require pragmatism, not moral indignation.

Let’s take this in layers:

Layer No. 1: BYOD

This one is easy. Employees didn’t ask for your permission to bring Apple technology into the office. They did this on their own initiative, asking IT for support. This won’t change. For BYOD, your best response is to sigh, suck it up, keep on top of any disruptive changes, and figure out the lowest-cost way of dealing with them.

Layer No. 2: Enterprise-owned gadgets

This one is harder. There are situations in which Apple technology is the superior choice. It’s why, when my consulting company performs technology assessments, we pay close attention to the marketing department: If it uses Macs or complains bitterly that it isn’t allowed to, all is right with the world. It’s when the folks in marketing don’t care either way that our spider sense tingles.

My best advice: When Apple tech is the best solution, that’s what you should buy, but keep its integration as superficial as possible. Integration, after all, is where things tend to break the most.

To the extent you can keep Apple technology stand-alone or nearly so or to the extent the vendor on the other side of the Apple integration takes responsibility for keeping things working (and to which you trust them), that’s the best you can do.

Layer No. 3: Development tools

Here’s where your choices are diciest. Say you’re planning to add custom iPad apps to your applications portfolio. You’ll either build them on Apple development tools, a third-party alternative, or some of each — for example, if you use Apple development tools with third-party controls added.

Rely on Apple’s toolkit and Apple might pull the rug out from under you one of these days. Use a third-party alternative, and Apple might either curate it out of existence or change the rules so much that nothing works anymore. It’s not the most terrific set of choices, but they’re the ones you have. All in all, you’re probably safer with Apple development tools, but safer isn’t the same as safe.

Why your vendor matters

Am I being unfair by singling out Apple? Probably. Certainly, lots of other technology vendors have changed the rules from time to time — Microsoft, for example, when Vista meant lots of devices we relied on had no drivers that worked with our shiny new computers.

The thought process is more important than the example. Whenever you’re choosing technology, pay attention to the vendor just as much as the tech itself. When you integrate technologies, be very careful before deciding to go beyond interfaces provided for that purpose, that have published, contractually guaranteed specifications.

Rely on anything deeper and you’re putting yourself at risk — more so with some vendors than others.

This story, “How much can your business trust Apple?,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Bob Lewis’ Advice Line blog on InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.