Apple iPhone in the enterprise

The iPhone may help make a market for dual-mode devices, but the technology may not be ready for the market

No doubt the Apple iPhone will create a stir regarding the kind of services and applications dual-mode devices can deliver. But the success of dual-mode — cellular plus Wi-Fi — in the enterprise may depend on the willingness of cellular carriers to share their networks with Wi-Fi providers. One source tells me that both T-Mobile and Cingular, now AT&T, will drop any VoIP phone call originating from a handset if Skype is the service provider.

This kind of anticompetitive behavior won’t last long, but at the moment, if true, it is worth considering, especially as carriers themselves begin dabbling in VoIP. T-Mobile, for one, is currently test-marketing its own VoIP service in Seattle.

If blocking VoIP calls sounds far-fetched, consider that Frank Hanzlik, managing director of the Wi-Fi Alliance, told me other carriers have VoIP capability but don’t want that fact known. He refused to mention which carriers.

Before standardizing on a dual-mode phone, enterprises should also consider the true ubiquity of the network. Uptime in airports and coffee shops is not the same as door-to-door coverage and would preclude using any serious business application on a dual-mode phone.

I spoke with Mohan Natarajan, vice president of engineering at Firetide, about this concern.

Firetide, and other mesh-networking companies, can greatly extend your Wi-Fi capabilities by deploying mesh nodes throughout a city. At present, Firetide has 3,000 nodes in a 50-square-mile section of Singapore, giving users 70Mbps access. Here in the States, however, mesh hasn’t caught on, except in the public-safety sector, for which Firetide has deployed mesh networks in Dallas and Phoenix.

Wi-Fi traffic management also remains in its early stages. Wi-Fi Alliance’s Hanzlik says resource management standards — IEEE 802.11k and 802.11v — are now under review and that nothing should be expected in terms of approvals before the end of 2008.

How to handle power output in a heavily trafficked Wi-Fi environment is the crux of the traffic management problem. Firetide’s Natarajan compares the problem to having 10 pairs of people in a room all shouting at one another at once in order to be heard above the din. IEEE 802.11k and 802.11v will address this issue by modulating the power so that, as in our example, the 10 pairs of people learn to talk in an audible whisper and everyone gets heard.

Natarajan also says handset providers must make their devices more intelligent to help reduce network latency. Right now, network providers look into packets to identify whether they are streaming video, voice, or data. Enabling the devices to notify the network about the type of data being sent will cut down this latency and make for better SLAs.

Of course, there is also the ever-present problem of security, as the iPhone no doubt will mean yet another device with lots of storage capability being brought into the office without corporate oversight.

Companies need to create policies that prevent unauthorized personnel from connecting to the network, whether via a USB stick or Bluetooth, and downloading data, says Bob Egner, vice president of product management at Check Point, a pure-play security provider.

“The iPhone is just the tip of the iceberg,” Egner says.

Luckily, the iPhone, like other handsets, identifies itself to the network, making it possible to enforce data upload and download policies. But that does nothing for the single most important vulnerability the enterprise faces when it comes to these kinds of devices: lost or stolen equipment.

“The greatest need is for encryption on these end points,” Egner says.

Yet another unresolved issue facing enterprise adoption of dual-mode devices is the lack of a standardized handoff specification between cellular and Wi-Fi.

An IEEE study group is looking at handover issues. Currently, UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) defines the handover mechanism for GSM used by T-Mobile, British Telecom, and Orange. But there is a camp that favors SIP-based solutions, if for no other reason than they want it all IP-based.

The Apple iPhone will probably do one other thing for the handset market, and that is increase the capabilities of the display.

Apple decided not to take the mainstream path and is instead tapping LTPS (Low Temperature Polycrystal and Silicon) technology for its display.

Brandon Turk, project engineering manager at Coherent, which owns 80 percent of the LTPS market and provides this technology to Apple’s display vendor, notes that LTPS has three qualities that make it superior to the more generally used Amorphous Silicon technology.

LTPS can reduce power consumption by more than 20 percent; it enables pixel densities surpassing 200 pixels per inch, giving users a brighter display, which is a challenge in the 1- to 5-inch form factor, Turk says; and LTPS gives a display designer flexibility in locating the integrated circuits and flexible printed circuit, which in turn allows for a thinner, larger form factor.

But if every handset manufacturer followed Apple’s suit and shifted to LTPS, could an industry essentially owned by one manufacturer — Coherent — be able to handle it? Turk thinks so, but I doubt it.

I’ve covered display technology for years, and I can tell you there are always cyclical delays in that part of the industry, as screen form factors change in size and shape, let alone an increase in demand.

At the end of the day, the iPhone looks to be an exciting product with a great interface, but don’t count on its dual-mode technology to change the way you do business. Not for a while anyway.