Picking a business handset isn’t an easy task these days. The temptation to stick to convention and just go with something from the frontrunners, RIM, is hard to resist, though if you are a confirmed neophyte, and want to live somewhat dangerously then you could always plump for the recently businessified iPhone 3G.
Sitting somewhere between the two is Nokia’s latest effort in the business arena, the E71 and though it’s an area that Nokia has never really commanded in quite the same way it has the rest of the smartphone market, the E71 is ample evidence that the company is certainly more than capable of coming up with the goods when it puts its mind to it.
Continue reading ‘What’s Nokia’s business tycoon, the E71, all about?’
Aww, that’s nice. Here we were thinking that the iPhone was stomping all over its rivals with (immaculately fitted, designer) hobnail boots. The truth, according to Nokia and RIM is quite the reverse.
Speaking to Macworld, Apple’s two main rivals in the Smartphone market are both relatively sanguine about the iPhone’s success and say that the phone’s high profile is actually boosting sales of rival smartphones too.
There could be something in this - I know a few people who have had their interest piqued by the iPhone, only to discover that they can’t keep their existing network contract or realise that they wont be able to install random apps and plump for a N95 instead.
Saucer of milk, too, for Nokia’s Industry Liaison bod, Mark Selby. When asked if Nokia’s new phone would be an iPhone Killer he replied “I don’t know what there is to kill.” Nokia can, he claimed, sell more phones in seven days than Apple can in a year.
When Nokia announced the closure of its manufacturing plant in Bochum, Germany it’s fair to say that the local population was less than pleased.
As well as local demonstrations, anti-Nokia sentiment in Germany reached the point were people were dumping the Nokia handsets and switching to rivals in their droves. This was followed by a redundancy payment of around 20 million Euros to sacked workers and demands that Nokia repay millions more Euros in subsidies from the EU and the German government.
All of this might have something to do with Nokia’s ‘Growth For Bochum‘ plan - announced last week as a joint venture between Nokia, the North Rhine-Westphalia and the City of Bochum.
The plan will see Nokia investing the proceeds from the sale of the plant into the local area and working to establish an ‘Entrepeneur centre’ to encourage inward investment and grow local businesses.
Nokia is moving its production to Romania, where it can take advantage of much lower wages (about a tenth of those in Germany).
Market research firm ChangeWave Research claims that 59% of iPhone-owning business customers are “very satisfied” with the handset, compared to 47% of BlackBerry users, 40% of Nokia users, 30% of Samsung users, 25% of Motorola users and a lowly 10% of Palm users.
People have already seized on the survey as proof that the iPhone could unseat the BlackBerry as the device of choice for business users. To which I say “Phooey!”. Of course people love the iPhone, with its touchscreen and intuitive user interface. There’s no reason why businesspeople should be immune to these features either.
But is an iPhone really more satisfying to use for mobile email - the most popular business application on phones - than a BlackBerry, considering the latter’s physical keyboard and full push-email features? Can you get iPhone working easily with a corporate network, and will your IT admin let you? It’s questions like these that would really show if iPhone has a future as a business handset. Apple certainly isn’t marketing it as such…
(via Zdnet)
US mobile operator AT&T has announced some new iPhone tariffs aimed at business customers. They tie users into a two-year contract, and come in three pricing tiers for datas: $45 a month for 200 texts, $55 a month for 1,500 texts, and $65 a month for unlimited texting. All offer unlimited data and Visual Voicemail. However, business users have to sign up for a separate voice-call package, boosting the monthly price up.
It’s a helluva lot of money, and I can’t help wondering if the price plans will tempt big companies, who might prefer to get their key workers BlackBerry handsets, or more business-focused Windows Mobile smartphones
Still, it’ll be interesting to see if O2 follows suit in the UK with some business-focused iPhone tariffs. Currently, O2 makes business customers who want an iPhone sign up to a separate consumer contract, although they can transfer their existing number. If I’m honest, I think business use of the iPhone is a bit of a sideshow - it’s not the market Apple is targeting, and there are better devices available for corporate road warriors.
AT&T iPhone business plans
