Well the big new announcement from the Apple Town Hall meeting given by Steve Jobs which was covered by many media outlets, best covered by the folks at Engadget filled my inbox with many questions on interoperability with several Microsoft products, how the SDK affects the mobile market and questions if it is a true fit for enterprise.
Enterprise
The new update given by Steven Jobs in his announcement to iPhone 2.0 adds support for the Enterprise mainly via Microsoft's Exchange Activesync license. This allows for the following:
- Push email
- Push contacts
- Push calendar
- Global Address List
- Certificates and Identities
- WPA2/802.1x
- Enforced security policies
- More VPN protocols
- Device configuration
- Remote wipe
So if you are currently a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or 2007 user and your IT department allows for it, upgrading to the iPhone 2.0 software will allow you have the same capabilities as Windows Mobile, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, Sony Ericsson, Symbian and other devices that support push email, live updates of calendar events, and contacts over Wi-Fi (via wireless Activesync) or EDGE cellular networks on your iPhone. There is no synching of Tasks or Notes since the iPhone doesn't have an app compatibilty (yet). So this will support the same remote wipe functionality found in Windows Mobile, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, Sony Ericsson, Symbian and other devices. To read more on this Microsoft has a Press release on it here. For people who don't have their own IT department they will be able to take advantage of services from Hosted Exchange providers like 4Smartphone and Mailstreet.
The update will also includes some security updates like Cisco IPsec VPN, enterprise class WiFi (WPA2 / 802.1x), security policies, and enterprise configuration tools.
Will it be compatible with Microsoft's SCMDM(System Center Mobile Device Manager)? One can only assume yes, since it is using the license for Microsoft Exchange Activesync and Apple also has the option to enable features that allow businesses to manage the iPhone through security policies in Exchange Server 2007. Will it be available when SCMDM goes live? One can only hope so.
There was no mention of the ability to encrypt the device or lock it down besides the basic PIN, which will not pass some enterprise security policies unless a third party application can do this. This same thing happened on the Windows Mobile side of things with encryption on the storage card and more secure passwords to fit enterprise security profiles and policies. I am sure Apple will make the necessary changes in 2.0 since not much has been revealed about it yet.
There was also no mention of increasing the security in Safari, but I am sure an update is coming due to the mention from Paypal. Safari lacks two clear anti-phishing measures. There is no filter to block or warn users of fake websites that may use a PayPal-like website address to scam users. Safari also lacks a recent development known as an Extended Validation (EV) certificate. To be fair other mobile browsers also lack EV support as well, including IE Mobile and handsets can use Paypal via Paypal Mobile.
The SDK and Developer Program
The SDK is free to download from here. It includes the Xcode IDE, Instruments, iPhone simulator, frameworks and samples, compilers, Shark analysis tool, and more. Note in order to download the iPhone SDK a free sign up as a Registered iPhone Developer is required as well hardware requirements, which is of no surprise an Intel processor-based Mac running Mac OS X Leopard.
The SDK is completely open to everything on the iPhone including the accelerometers, Multi-Touch screen, and camera. So some cool games will be coming soon for the platform, some major developers already have a head start and will be releasing titles when 2.0 and the App Store go live, Apple wants others there too. Apple had a few on display like Spore from EA, Super Monkey Ball from Sega and Touch Fighter from Apple that looks a lot like Interstellar Flames from Xengames.
To be part of the the Developer Program and receive its benefits there are two paid levels:
The Standard Program at $99 is for developers who are creating free and commercial applications for iPhone and iPod touch.
The Enterprise Program at $299 is for developers who are creating proprietary, in-house applications for iPhone and iPod touch.
The iPhone Developer Program will initially be available to a limited number of developers in the U.S. and will expand to other countries in the coming months.
The benefits of the developer program include:
- complete set of resources in the iPhone Dev Center
- testing of code on the iPhone and iPod Touch
- code-level technical by Apple engineers
- ability to reach iPhone customers via the App Store
Caveats are that applications have to be distributed via the App store to the iPhone, which limits development of in house applications unless it is approved by Apple. Also iPhone enterprise customers will be able to create a private page on the App store accessible by their employees only so this will be the mechanism to distribute inhouse applications.
Here the terms of the App Store:
- price is determined by the developer
- you only get 70% of the revenue, yes Apple takes some of your hard earned work, but it's cheaper than some other mobile software distributors.
- revenue is delivered in monthly checks
- good thing is there is no charge for free applications (if it is approved by Apple)
- no credit card fees that comes out of the 30% revenue sharing/service fee
- no marketing fees that too comes out of the 30% revenue sharing/service fee
- no hosting fees that also comes out of the 30% revenue sharing/service fee
- applications can be browsed,purchased and downloaded on the device or via iTunes
There was no mention of support for Copy, Cut, and Paste, which would be nice for applications and is especially needed for those doing something in enterprise applications and even using the built-in applications on the iPhone like email and notes. Hopefully this will also be included in 2.0 when it is released in June, for free for the iPhone and a nominal charge for the iPod Touch(TBA).
That's it in a nutshell.