Once you know what level of access you need to support and how the hardware will be used day in and day out, comes the time to pick the best platform. Current Analysis' Avi Greengart said, "There is no best platform, but there are several good ones to choose from. The best for one will not be the best for another, and vice versa."
Greengart cuts to the chase and recommends that you "do whatever your senior executive says to do." He's not kidding. "From a practical standpoint, a newbie IT manager will learn the hard way if he/she doesn't follow an executive's wishes. Just because you [in IT] know that Google's Android is a completely untested platform doesn't mean you should tell your executive 'No' if they get one at Best Buy [when it's released] and ask you to support it."
Supporting one device to make an executive happy, however, is a bit different from supporting many. Let's look more at what each platform has to offer, and what they don't.
- Windows Mobile: "Right now in terms of in terms of just e-mail, voice, and simple browsing, Microsoft's Windows Mobile should probably be number one," said Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney. The main reason is that Microsoft has the widest base of third-party applications that will run on it. "When it comes to on-device apps, Microsoft is dominant."
- BlackBerry OS: If you don't need the higher degree of customization, BlackBerry OS and RIM's devices are more than enough to fit the bill for e-mail retrieval, simple applications, and basic browsing. RIM has worked hard to expand its device portfolio lately to compete with the device selection offered by its competitors. As Greengart puts it, BlackBerrys now come in "thin, wide, and wider," referencing the Pearl, Curve, and 8800 series.
- Nokia S60: Despite the strong capabilities of this platform, S60 simply doesn't have a notable presence in the U.S. This is confounded by a few factors.
- iPhone OS: iPhone 2.0 will no doubt support Exchange, remote wipe, and passwords, making it qualify for Gartner's "appliance" rating, but it does have a big Achilles' heel: third-party applications.
- Android: Sorry to dash any hopes you might have had, but Android is not going to be an enterprise-grade platform. At least not in the short term. It will remain a consumer play well into 2009, and likely won't begin to see traction in the enterprise until the first half of 2010. The reason? It isn't proven, and the security issues haven't been clearly hashed out.
Windows Mobile also has the advantage if you are a Windows development shop. You can use the same tools you are already familiar with for Windows Mobile. Windows Mobile has been around a long time and has a tremendous library of business applications ready to go.
Training is another factor to consider. In terms of ease of use and training, a lot of people have been focused on "WinMo" and how desktop-like it is relative to the iPhone. Many consider Windows Mobile's desktop appearance to be a negative, but when it comes to training users, it has a shallower learning curve than the BlackBerry operating system. "The desktop metaphor is extremely familiar," said Greengart.
Another advantage that Windows Mobile has is the wide variety and breadth of device selection available. "There are a lot of Windows Mobile licensees out there," noted Greengart. "You can get Windows Mobile in touch or non-touch, QWERTY or non-QWERTY, slider or slab, rugged or non-rugged." There's no doubt that Windows Mobile devices cover a lot of ground.
If your IT shop is already invested in the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and devices, there is no need to change systems unless your needs aren't being met. "RIM would be fine if you're running light-duty Web-based apps," said Gartner's Dulaney.
Only recently has BlackBerry been able to garner the same third-party vendor support from its partners that Windows Mobile enjoys. Microsoft still has a big lead here, though.
Not all smartphones are created equal. They draw their productivity-enhancing powers from the platform they use, rather than the hardware running it. What, then, makes for the best enterprise smartphone platform?
There is no single answer to that question. According to the experts we spoke to, different platforms are suited to different purposes. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, but in the long run, Microsoft's Windows Mobile and Research In Motion's BlackBerry OS are the two clear winners for most enterprise purposes. Here's a step-by-step primer on how to pick the platform most appropriate for you.
1 Determine What It Will Be Used For
Gartner classifies smartphones into three categories. Devices that can access e-mail without security measures, as well as run other, simple applications are granted "concierge" status. In short, what this really means is if your CEO comes down to the IT shop and says, "Support this device," it can (and probably should, if he's the one signing your paycheck) be done. But it isn't recommended. The first-generation iPhone falls into this category.
Next up are what Gartner terms "appliance-level" devices. These devices can sync with Exchange, have basic security measures, such as device wipe and passwords, and can run a wide range of third-party applications. This is where BlackBerrys, Nokia's S60 smartphones, and many Windows Mobile devices fall.
Last, there's "platform-grade" devices. These are devices that Gartner recommends for companies that wish to develop their own in-house applications, but can also run third-party apps and have the necessary vendor support. Windows Mobile also falls here.
If all your organization needs to do is mobilize e-mail, the appliance-level devices will be just fine. If you have a deep base of internally developed line-of-business applications that are core to what your mobile workforce needs each day, you'll need to choose devices that fall into the platform grade.
2 Figure Out Where It Will Be Used
Figuring out how a device will be used is the next question IT needs to answer in choosing an OS. If you're equipping a field workforce that will roam near and far and expose their hardware to the elements, a standard smartphone isn't going to be appropriate. A field force requires hardware that's more robust, rugged, and able withstand the rough-and-tumble life in a truck. That means something along the lines of a Motorola MC-35 Enterprise Data Assistant or an Intermec 700. Right now, Windows Mobile pretty much has a stranglehold on this market.
Typical road warriors, however, can get away with an off-the-shelf smartphone from RIM, Nokia, or any Windows Mobile licensee and pretty much be safe. Once this question in answered, you can move on to step number three.
First and foremost, you can't buy an enterprise Nokia device directly from the carriers, and you can't get one that works on CDMA networks (which half of U.S. smartphone customers use). These two alone are big roadblocks.
Not having a carrier partner for distribution is the real killer. "Because of Nokia's weakness in the U.S.," said Greengart, "not even its middleware -- which is good -- has good traction here. But its business devices have gotten a lot better."
You can get Nokia S60 devices from resellers and Nokia has done a good job of mandating that its E Series devices have quad-band radios and Wi-Fi, so you know they will work all over the world. But some have 3G, and others don't.
Gartner's Dulaney argues that most of what Nokia calls smartphones are really not business-class devices, however. Nokia calls anything that runs the S60 platform a smartphone. It has only several phones in its current E Series business devices, with many more S60 phones focused on multimedia functions instead. "If you're committed to Symbian, and you're in Europe and build Java apps, then Nokia's S60 will work fine."
You might argue that the iPhone SDK and upcoming AppStore negate this argument, but they don't. Support for all those nifty third-party apps is a key aspect of using them. If vendor support isn't there, they aren't worth installing. Another concern is that Apple has yet to make it clear exactly how -- and if -- it will support internally developed corporate applications. Details needs to be made clearer -- and vetted -- before the iPhone gets even a yellow, cautionary light from Dulaney and Greengart.
"Putting local code on that device would be risky because there are no back-up vendors," said Dulaney.
Despite this drawback, both believe the iPhone will get some traction in the enterprise. If you want/need secure e-mail, the iPhone will deliver it... at a price premium. The ease-of-use factor alone is quite compelling. It is doubtful that many enterprises will supply it directly. Rather, it will be a device that individual employees pick up on their own and expense back to IT.
It does have some intriguing factors. Based on recent demonstrations, there are some cool things that can be done with Android. The core is based on open-source Linux, and the upper layers are based on Java. These are known factors. The in-house development possibilities appear to be endless. There will certainly be early adopters who test it and consider it. Until the operating system is released in late 2008, it isn't even worth putting on your IT roadmap. "I would expect any IT manager to be wary of [Android] until it has been proven," said Greengart.
4 Make The Decision
In the end, from the device side, your organization needs to look at what it really needs, beyond the narrow views offered by thought-leaders. If your business has a wide variety of needs and you want to consolidate, then perhaps choose Microsoft's Windows Mobile. Don't fool yourself, however, into thinking that you'll ever be able to trim down to just one platform.
"In many cases, you can't consolidate 100% because people have certain preferences," said Gartner's Dulaney. "And some of them are the ones running your company. Two platforms would be reasonable. If you start from scratch, you might be able to live with one. If you're global, however, that possibility is remote. There are different geographic preferences and more choices for end users to select from."
The best smartphone platform is the one that allows your IT organization to properly equip all your different employees with the right device for their jobs.
