I was an Engineer that migrated to Sales, so I have always adapted well to tech tools. However, I know many in sales, who rely on their Palms and Blackberries, fret over the actual usage of the device. To the average, non technical person, it can be daunting.

For basic usage, the iPhone is much easier for the average person to use. RIM is already addressing this by changing the interface of existing products and creating new, more user friendly phones.

my company uses Exchange server and it works just fine with the iPhone--via IMAP. is it real-time like a PC exchange client (outlook)? no, but then neither is the Mac exchange client (Entourage).

The thing that could have been improved would have been calendar integration -- but Apple doesn't consider a calendar to be an integral part of email anyway. (grumble, complain)

Didn't analysts say there is no way the iPhone would succeed in the business space??? No, wait, analysts said this...forget it.

Of course! There's no reason for mail to have a calendar integrated. No one ever gets mails regarding events, meetings, or other things like that. It makes perfect sense that Mail includes Mail support, Notes, To Do items, an RSS reader (?!?), but not a calendar.

And I can't believe no one's pointed out that everyone knows separate applications are SO MUCH BETTER then integrated applications. Which is why you would never dream of adding Notes, To-Do items, and an RSS reader to something like a Mail program. Oh, wait....

Just ignore that. Let's try another example. Say, you'd be stupid to want to have a cell phone hooked with mail capabilities, web browsing, music listening, and movie watching. That's just crazy talk!

You mean people would rather use something that is easy to learn and work with????

Imagine anyone in a corporation having the nerve to even think that way!

Doofuses.

No s*** !

just a day or two ago someone on these boards was complaining how it was bad for using for work, and was responded to by saying it wasn't mean as a business device.

Well. You can watch movie, play your favorite iTunes collection, and play games. If I am a sale's guy, I would try to find my best excuse to convince my company to switch over to iPhone.

There seems to be some confusion over the question if iPhone is a business tool, or a consumer product (as well as constant state of confusion by testudo). The answer is easy, as it is geared towards neither of the two in a specialized fashion.

What it is, is a simple communications tool -- and it is exceedingly good at what it does. Is it any wonder, thus, that it appeals to both consumers and business *people* (not corporate IT departments, because they can't 'control' it)... of course!

The only glaring oversight, currently, is the lack of dynamic calendar synchronisation, over the air, or via email, but I have no doubt this is being worked on (currently, on OS X, mail can hand off invites to mail.app. Undoubtedly, this mechanism will be applied to iPhone as well).

Apart from that, mail reception, especially corporate IMAP based mail, works well (even considering how broken Outlook is in that regard) - though corporate IT departments do struggle with the daunting concept of setting up simple IMAP server gateways).

(that's sarcasm, by the way)

Maybe they can do their job in half the time on the iPhone. Instead of lugging around a manual and follow instructions everything they want to access a feature or change a setting.