Apple Mac HQ

Is the largest business email server and iPhone finally ready to play nice? According to Ars Technica, Apple sent out invitations to a press event on March 6th. Included in the invitation is a short statement about the event subject matter. “Please join us to learn about the iPhone software roadmap, including the iPhone SDK and some exciting new enterprise features.”

“New enterprise features”: Perhaps the one and only thing enterprises cares about when it comes to a phone, besides making calls, is email. Anything less than Exchange push (ActiveSync?) will be a huge disappointment. It was only a few months ago that Apple was hiring an iPhone/Exchange QA engineer. Could the iPhone finally be on even footing with corporate purchasers?

The support for push email from Exchange servers is the single largest hurdle to getting the iPhone into the hands of corporate users. Supporting push email from Exchange would finally allow the iPhone to enter the conversations when corporations talk about mobile devices. Currently the iPhone hasn’t even pulled up to the table, much less entered the conversation. With corporations come big budgets and that means more money for Apple and AT&T. I REALLY hope they announce Exchange support at this meeting. I’ll be asking my work to set me up the next day if they do!

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I’m a little late on this story, but if you haven’t read it yet I do highly suggest it. Wired Magazine has a great story on the creation of the iPhone with behind the scene information from those that were there.

The article talks about the motivation for creating a cell phone and the debacle that was the Motorola ROKR. The author, Fred Vogelstein, goes into detail about the meetings with the wireless carriers and who rebuked Steve Jobs iPhone pitch (Verizon). Given that Verizon cripples their phones to begin with, it’s certainly not surprising they didn’t want to give Jobs that much control. So what juicy details are in the article? We’ll, there’s a gold mine of information in the article but I’ll give you a nugget here. One Apple insider estimates Apple spent roughly $150 million building the iPhone. The article is probably the best article I’ve read on the iPhone yet. What are you waiting for? Head on over to Wired and read the article now!

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One of the biggest complains about the iPhone is that it doesn’t run on the 3G network. El Steve has said more than once that the main reason was battery life. The 3G radio is such a battery hog that it brought down the battery life to an unacceptable level.

According to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, battery life must be improving in 2008. This Bloomberg report cites Randall Stephenson saying “You’ll have it next year”, in reference to a question about when a 3G iPhone would emerge from the depths of a Cupertino secret lab. He also said he didn’t know how much the 3G version would cost.

In September Steve Jobs said “Hopefully we’ll see that late next year”, in reference to a 3G iPhone. The Jobs quote was not as definite as this recent quote by Randall Stephenson. Though a 3G iPhone appears to be coming down the pipe, no word on exactly when in 2008 it will ship. Knowing typical Apple dates, I’m betting for a December 30th, 2008 shipping date.

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