News

Pull-out keyboard: still no sign of the iPhone "corporate"

Observers who were forecasting a "proper keyboard" iPhone for June 2009 are giving Apple one last chance to announce a corporate version of its mold-breaking mobile. Tonight, it almost certainly won't appear. That, say analysts, might mean that Apple has given up on the mainstream corporate market.

"Apple is, primarily, a hardware company," said NewsWireless's best mole. "It wants to sell more hardware - and has been working with the networks to produce a corporate model of the iPhone, for which there is real demans, especially in the US. But the customers aren't satisfied, and Apple is losing patience."

The problem, for a hardware builder, is that the corporate market is much more demanding, but at the same time, much less inclined to pay premium prices.

"We've talked with corporate buyers," said our mole. "We've showed them prototype machines with HipTop style slide-out keyboards. And they say it's nice, but what about the security problems?"

Finally, when assured that these problems can be solved, the corporate buyers sit back,and say: "What about discounts for bulk? 20%?"

Such corporate reluctance appears to have made many Apple executives (including Steve Jobs) convinced that the phone market isn't a long-term one. "If they can find a way of making a netbook profitably, they'll probably bypass the phone networks, and ultimately, drop the iPhone altogether," summarised this analyst.