Apple stages corporate mobile takeover with iPhone OS 4.0

At the risk of being branded an Apple fanboy, I have to say Apple’s plans for the forthcoming iPhone OS 4.0 will vault the iPhone past all mobile competitors as the best mobile business device — period. Until now, the iPhone’s capabilities for security, app management and distribution, device management, and so forth have been middling at best, creating a real difference versus the BlackBerry for large businesses. In turn, this has let IT dismiss the iPhone as a toy and caused many IT shops to break out in hives when someone wants to use an iPhone on their network, though it’s the device that people want.

That’s about to change.

[Editor’s note: At the WWDC 2010 show on June 7, Apple announced it was renaming iPhone OS to iOS in recognition of its use on the iPad and iPod Touch as well as on the iPhone, and confirmed a ship date of June 21 for iOS 4 for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Apple did not describe any other changes to iOS 4.0 from what is reported here.]

Apple’s new iPhone OS 4.0, currently available in SDK form for iPhone developers and set for general release this summer, takes several major steps to address the needs of corporate mobile usage, as well as amp up the capabilities that will appeal to individuals. As a result, user demand for iPhones will increase significantly, but so will the ability for corporate IT to safely — even enthusiastically — embrace the iPhone.

Even better, owners of the iPhone 3G S, the third-generation iPod Touch (the 32GB and 64GB models from fall 2009), and the iPad all will be able to run iPhone OS 4.0, and its capabilities will be available to a large base of existing users. The older iPhone 3G and some second-generation iPod Touch devices will support some — but not all — of the new iPhone OS 4.0 capabilities, based on their hardware’s capabilities.

Here’s why.

Multitasking at long last

A persistent criticism of the iPhone has been its lack of multitasking. Yes, there was basic multitasking at the operating system level for services such as checking email and looking for server-based alerts, including availability of app updates, but nothing for app developers to take advantage of.

iPhone OS 4.0 adds multitasking APIs, so developers can write applications that multitask in a way that Apple says will not affect battery life or reduce performance. Apple CEO Steve Jobs claims that Apple took so long to bring multitasking to the iPhone operating system because it needed to figure out how to do so without compromising battery life or reducing performance of the foreground app — and now it’s figured out the secret sauce. (We’ll see, of course, when it actually ships.)

The multitasking capabilities mean that apps can do background processing — such as downloading a video — when another program is running in the foreground. Apps that don’t need to continue to execute essentially go into suspended animation; when you switch back to them, they pick up where you left off — such as when returning to a game after checking email. Of course, app developers have to implement these capabilities, so developers will need to update their existing apps. You don’t get the multitasking for free.

Apple’s senior vice president of iPhone software, Scott Forstall, says that Apple examined tens of thousands of popular apps to understand how they operated, then figured out what APIs were needed to develop to support in-app and cross-app multitasking. Those APIs are:

• Background audio, so apps like Pandora will play music while you switch to another program, much as Apple’s iPhone music player already does.
• VoIP, so Skype, Twitter, and the like can run in the background and alert you to incoming calls and messages. You can then take those calls and, say, search for a restaurant or check your flight status, even while the apps are going.
• GPS location services, so Global Positioning Satellite-based location continues to work when you switch to other apps. For example, you can get directions while listening to music.
• Location detection over cell towers, so the iPhone knows you switched cell towers, all without the use of GPS, which eats up battery power. This should also be a boon for the GPS-less iPod Touches.
• Server-less notifications (Apple calls this “local notification”), so alarm clocks and other apps can track status internally, even when running in background, and send notifications to you without being connected to a server, as was required in previous iPhone OS versions.
• Task completion, which lets apps continue to process in background until a task, like video download, is completed, rather than go into suspended animation.
• Fast app switching, which is the suspended-animation capability that uses no CPU resources and doesn’t require the app to save its state before moving into the background.

All these APIs will let iPhone apps work like those for Windows and Mac; users can switch among them without fears about the apps resetting, losing their place, or turning off, as is the case in the current iPhone operating system. I see real potential for business-oriented client programs that can monitor the iPhone itself as well as its apps, such as for security issues or policy compliance.

Mobile management over the air Large companies often (rightfully) complain that you can’t manage iPhones easily, unlike BlackBerrys, which use the RIM BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), or devices running Windows Mobile or the old Palm OS, which are accessed via various mobile management tools. Sure, you can create configuration profiles using the free iPhone Configuration Utility, but you can’t guarantee that employees install those profiles — which do things like restrict app downloading, require complex passwords, and use security certificates — unless you physically connect each device to a PC or Mac that has the utility and the proper configurations installed. The other options — having users download them from Web sites or installing them from emails  — don’t let you track that the profiles are actually in place, which is critical for many regulated companies.

There are a bunch of mobile management products out there that can verify whether policy configurations are installed on your iPhones, but they can’t actually provision the configurations for you. With iPhone OS 4.0, that’ll change — and IT will get essentially the same management capabilities it relies upon for old-school devices like the BlackBerry.

iPhone OS 4.0 will support a new mobile device management service that vendors can use to install these configurations over the air, without user intervention. That’s on par with the BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and the old Palm OS, though it does mean you’ll need a tool like Good Technology’s Good for Enterprise, MobileIron’s MobileIron, Sybase’s Afaria, and Trust Digital’s EMM — just like you do with BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and the old Palm OS. Chances are that if you’ve deployed Windows Mobile or Palm OS devices, you’re already using such a product, so you’re probably looking at upgrading what you have rather than starting from scratch. (If you’re a BlackBerry-only shop, you’re probably using BES for these capabilities; thus, you’ll need to add a second tool for the iPhone, since BES only does BlackBerrys.)

Multiple-account mail, unified inbox, and attachment opening iPhone OS 4.0 gives email a significant boost. First, you will be able to have multiple Exchange accounts active at the same time; you no longer will be restricted to one account, as is the case today. (Plus, Exchange compatibility is being extended to the new Exchange 2010 Server.) Second, you get a unified inbox, much like Apple’s Mail program for Mac OS X. Along with that feature come new navigation capabilities to switch among mailboxes, as well as threaded discussions and — a key improvement for many users — the ability to open attachments in compatible apps directly from your email.

For me, the multiple-Exchange-account and attachment-opening capabilities solve huge frustrations with the iPhone. Maybe this summer I’ll finally be able to open a Zipped file attachment on my iPod Touch, then view or edit its contents. Or I’ll finally be able to open a calendar invitation sent to my personal (non-Exchange) email account and add the appointment to my calendar. (I do need to point out that these email improvements catch up to what several competitors — notably BlackBerry, WebOS, and Google Android — already offer.)

Data encryption and VPN security iPhone OS 4.0 adds two encryption capabilities that will help calm some IT fears about iPhone adoption: It will encrypt email and any attachments with your PIN, and Apple is offering an API that lets apps encrypt all the data they store. SSL VPN support for both Cisco and Juniper networks is also being added.

Although more and more CIOs I speak with are finding ways to adopt the iPhone in its current state, this set of changes will go a long way to accelerating that adoption.

iTunes-less app distribution Another big win for IT: iPhone OS 4.0 will let you provision your own apps to iPhone users without going through iTunes. Instead, you can do it wirelessly — no need for USB tethering — from your own Web server (via a URL you make available to employees), as an email attachment, or through another app.

This will be a big deal for the many companies that don’t let employees install nonessential apps like iTunes. It’ll be an even bigger deal for companies that lock down external ports and, thus, whose employees could not sync apps via a USB connection.

App folders The iPhone started out as a very simple device, but as more capabilities are added, its plain interface becomes a limiting factor. For example, in today’s iPhone, you may have to scroll through lots and lots of home screens to find the app you want. iPhone OS 4.0 will introduce the Folders capability, which lets you create folders of apps, so you can organize them by type — just as you would on a PC or Mac.

The approach is simple: Drag an app onto another one and iPhone OS 4.0 creates a folder. iPhone OS 4.0 names the folder based on the type of apps you put together, such as Games or Business. The category names come from the App Store, which is too bad, since those categories are overly broad and fairly meaningless. Fortunately, you can rename the folders. If you drag an app of a different category onto another app, the folder gets the name of the app you are dragging — until you rename it, of course.

Sorry, no Flash or Java As Jobs told InfoWorld’s Paul Krill, iPhone OS 4.0 won’t support Adobe Flash or Oracle/Sun Java. For the graphics and interactivity in iPhone OS 4.0’s new in-apps advertising capability, it’s all HTML5 — yet another sign that Apple will never accept Flash on its mobile devices. Is that good or bad? Bad for Adobe, but given Google’s interest in promoting HTML5 as well, this may be an inevitable direction for Web developers to head toward.

The “iPhone killers” are about to be killed For most businesses, all of this means most of the rest of the mobile pack is toast.

• Google Android has essentially no security or management capabilities, so it’s a nonstarter for most businesses, and the emerging set of client apps for secure email and basic management coming from mobile management vendors is an unsatisfying Band-Aid approach.
• Palm’s WebOS has minimal security capabilities and no management capabilities, and its market share is so small that few mobile management vendors are even bothering with the platform.
• Nokia’s Symbian OS has moderate security and management capabilities but is being phased out in favor of a future operating system called MeeGo, so that platform is essentially on hold for an unknown quantity. Also, it suffers from an unsatisfying user interface; you don’t lust after a Nokia device, nor does it have the apps capability of an iPhone.

RIM’s BlackBerry will continue to be a favorite of IT, especially old-school IT. But I come across an increasing number of CIOs — even in highly regulated industries — that have figured out today’s iPhone fits their requirements and is much more capable than a BlackBerry. I expect these modern CIOs to convince their old-school colleagues in the next few years that there’s more to corporate mobile than BlackBerry, especially given what iPhone OS 4.0 brings to the table.

The wild card is Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows Phone 7, which should have the same good security and management capabilities as the Windows Mobile platform. If the new operating system doesn’t overly target social networks and, thus, appeal just to Facebook and Twitter users, it could be a real option for modern CIOs. But Windows Phone 7 won’t ship until well after iPhone OS 4.0, so it may face a much higher hurdle than Microsoft expected when it began mapping out Windows Phone 7’s capabilities a couple years back. That’s what you get for screwing around with bad upgrades for half a decade.

There’s no question in my mind that iPhone OS 4.0 puts the iPhone in the best position for corporate users of any mobile device. You get the personal capabilities individuals love, the app capabilities that are great for both individuals and business, corporate-class email, security that meets the needs of most organizations, and a good Web browser. Nothing else does all of this well. So why fight it? In fact, there’s every reason to embrace it.

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This article, “Apple stages corporate mobile takeover with iPhone OS 4.0,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Gruman et al.’s Mobile Edge blog and follow the latest developments in mobile computing at InfoWorld.com.