Spotlight - Channel Insider
Empowering the next generation Channel

Spotlight: 5 Smart Phones for Business


Share

By Jessica Davis on 2009-11-19

Even as sales of enterprise technologies declined smart phone sales have been on the rise, growing 13 percent in the third quarter of 2009 alone. And where BlackBerry had reigned, other devices have started to infiltrate the enterprise. From Motorola’s Droid to Apple’s iPhone, here’s a quick overview of the top smart phones today most likely to be found in a business environment and in need of IT support.

 
  • Even as sales of so many enterprise technologies declined in 2009, smart phone sales continued to climb, growing 13 percent in the third quarter of 2009 alone. And where BlackBerry had reigned, other devices have started to infiltrate the enterprise.

    That’s not such a bad thing. As one solution provider points out, when your customers want more operating systems and more carriers, it means you will be called upon to provide more services in terms of integration and management.

    Here’s a quick overview of the top smart phones out there today that your customers could be asking you to support.
  • Classic Enterprise – The BlackBerry

    One of the newest models out there today is the BlackBerry Bold 9700. It offers WiFi support, trackpad navigation, a 3.2 megapixel camera, a high resolution display and advanced multimedia playback.
  • The Young Upstart -- Apple iPhone 3GS

    More iPhones are sneaking into the enterprise in the pockets of C-level executives, making it just a matter of time before the things proliferate throughout organization. The apps are what make this a killer device, and several business applications are also available. Apple introduced this update to its classic iPhone this year which offers video recording, a 3 megapixel camera, plus some features to satisfy the enterprise-minded, such as encryption.
  • For the Retro Futurist - Motorola Droid

    The Droid is the most recent smartphone to be called an iPhone killer, and with its higher resolution screen (WGVA on a 3.7 inch display) and a slide out physical keyboard and a 5 megapixel camera, it does have features that the iPhone lacks. But the brand new device, which uses Google’s Linux-based Android operating system, doesn’t yet boast the number and quality of apps that are available for iPhone, and it’s probably too new to be considered proven as ready for prime time.
  • For the Linux Rebel - T-Mobile myTouch G3

    T-Mobile offered the first Android-based phone, which also promised to be an iPhone killer. It’s got the celebrity endorsements and the advertising campaign, and the most recent version has a 3.15 megapixel camera, video calling, a 3.2 inch screen, plus its own apps store.
  • For the Palm Loyalist - Palm Pre

    The Palm Pre was promoted as the device that could make Palm competitive with iPhone and BlackBerry, and shipped earlier this year with a 3.1 inch screen, a sliding full QWERTY keyboard, WiFi, GPA and a 3 megapixel camera, plus 8G of internal memory.