CIO’s Say ‘No’ To iPhone – Call It Non-Business And Say Touchscreen Keyboard Is Impossible

apple iphoneThe only valid points being made against the iPhone’s touchscreen keyboard is that [yes] it’s a newer smartphone technology and [yes] it would require ‘time’ for a user to familiarize themselves with it.

CIO’s from all over the globe have been calling the iPhone a nice-to-have ‘toy’ and not ready for business. The overwhelming majority of complaints stem back to how the iPhone’s touchscreen is unwieldy and too different than that of a tactile QWERTY.

Too different? Isn’t this an oxymoron-like mindset coming from men and women who [as CIO's] should be on the forefront of IT — welcoming of change and advances in their industry?

ZDNet reported that Nic Evans, European IT director at Key Equipment Finance, agreed:

Keyboard for typing every time–would you play a piano with the keyboard lid closed?

A quick look at Nic’s analogy-

First, the piano is a couple hundred years old, and yes, like QWERTY keyboards, it’s as tactile as any device can get. However, piano construction and design is a topic far from the comparative model needed to effectively argue that the iPhone’s touchscreen is like closing the lid on a Blackberry’s QWERTY keyboard. The two just don’t correlate.

My bet is Apple certainly did not approach touchscreen technology with toys or pianos first in mind. Apple’s touchscreen most likely won it’s place on the iPhone because of its potential in IT and its futuristic input method that [with an open mind] is quite easy to adjust to.

Spencer Steel, IT manager at Informatiq says this about touchscreen:

As good as the iPhone virtual keyboard is–the best I’ve seen of its genre–I would take on a speed typing race on my BlackBerry 8800 against any iPhone user who was up for the challenge. The iPhone has the ‘best of breed’ in its genre and may look cooler, but get involved in a lengthy email tirade and chuck in a few non-alpha characters into the mix and the BlackBerry ‘full-sized’ keyboard comes out tops every time.

Spencer offers up quite the challenge and it blows my mind that he even jokes that he would enter a speed typing race on his Blackberry and win against, say, a college kid with an iPhone.

Malleability — we all have the knack for adapting to new hardware and software — at any age. Problem lies in motivation.

Organizations that don’t at least take a look at adopting iPhones into their business models can be closing the door on a hot new popular programming platform. One that can easily be tailored towards gains in employee productivity, B2B, corporate marketability and overall open communication.

Are anti-touchscreen CIO’s not as motivated as they should be. Is Apple’s leap into virtual keyboard technology a ticking time bomb and all for not. And is in fact the iPhone, like a lot of CIO’s would have you believe, just not cut from the business mold.

Clearly, the smart companies [and a viable CIO worth her salt] will look past the touchscreen and give due consideration to programming one of the hottest tech devices [Apple's iPhone] into their IT strategy.

  • http://www.pacificIT.ca pacificIT

    The arguments are slowly becoming cliche. Roman letter based Keyboard? Point for RIM. Innovation and community driven development? Point for Apple. Backend corporate network security? Point for RIM. World-wide acceptance and usability of OS and device? Point for Apple. Sound close? Nope. On behalf of entrepreneurs already using it and those now playing catchup for Apple on the backend network security side, my money's on Apple. Sorry dinosaurs. Sorry RIM.

  • Oli

    You love Apple so much it hurt to read this.

    Consider — just for a second, please — that these people might actually have a hard time using an iPhone. You don't (whooptidoo!) but you're not responsible for making purchasing decisions in a major company.

    Consider that the people saying these things have actually done the research inside their respective companies. Consider that they might actually be using real data to try and explain that they find the keyboard an issue… Rather than your survey-of-one.

    And while I'm at it, where, in any of these reports (or their quotes) do they call it a `toy`?! A “nice to have” means a luxury. Like a hot tub. Doesn't help you do any extra work but it's a nice thing to have in your office.

    Tip time: If you want to do tech reporting well, you have to be a little less sensational when somebody says something mildly disparaging against something you'd like to marry one day. This is just hackery. At its worse.

  • fetus_over_easy

    i have an itouch, not a blackberry. i use the keyboard mainly at home when i have to run from my computer to the can or in bed as an inbetween. for me, the peck curve has been long but do-able.
    PS I have fat fingers.

  • http://www.jtrigsby.com jtrigsby

    “…just not cut from the business mold.” Frankly, I would take that as a compliment. Business as usual produces results as usual.

    I bet IBM (or even Microsoft and Yahoo) said the same thing about Google, “…they're just not the 'business' type.”

  • http://techmiso.com/ Rich Chuckrey

    I've grown to like my iPhone since buying it a few months ago. Wouldn't
    necessarily marry it — my wife cooks a much better tomato sauce. My fingers
    are also much more familiar now with the virtual keyboard, but I was a fish
    out of water typing up early emails.
    I only decided on the iPhone after putting a QWERTY device through its
    paces. You could say I had an unbiased position when making the choice
    between Apple's touchscreen and a QWERTY.
    And, you're right, I wouldn't call my company 'major', but IT procurements
    in my agency are in fact my call — not a bunch of cash, but near a million
    USD/year — give or take a $100K depending on capital purchases and the
    YEN/USD conversion.

    Back to your comment: More of what I read/hear from IT management folks out
    there is heavy-leaning in the RIM/QWERTY direction. Maybe those folks 'have'
    researched the iPhone, maybe they haven't. Frankly, what I saw was very
    little research and more off-the-cuff opinions of the iPhone and its
    'perceived' typing limitations.

    Here's a 'toy' quote for you:

    Ken Davis, IT director over at TV Channel Five–
    “It's an interesting *toy* from a personal viewpoint…” Kudos for Ken
    though because he goes on to say he would consider the iPhone if Apple made
    improvements to its hardware and software — he however only specified
    Microsoft Exchange as one of those required improvements — which is in fact
    now supported on the iPhone….

    *pacificIT <http://www.pacificit.ca/>* puts it spot-on in his comment
    [above]–
    “On behalf of entrepreneurs already using it and those now playing catchup
    for Apple on the backend network security side, my money's on Apple. Sorry
    dinosaurs. Sorry RIM.”

    And as for your 'tip time' on 'reporting well' — Thanks, but no thanks. My
    point still stands: smart companies are the ones that give the iPhone a
    serious look now or get left behind.

    Have a great UK day!

  • http://techmiso.com/ Rich Chuckrey

    The 3.0 release should help out with typing — it allows the keyboard to go 'landscape' — spacing out the keys a little bit more for your [fat] fingers.

  • Michael

    I can't believe this was put up for discussion. The iPhone is definitely not a business phone. It's a device for non power users just like any other apple brands such as their macs. Also, were you saying that a college kid with an iPhone would beat someone with a QWERTY device in a typing speed contest? You weren't clear on that. If you were saying that, then obviously you haven't tested both. Try typing this on your iPhone: A1B2C3D4. This post is almost a joke. I'll leave it at that, you can enjoy changing between alphabet and numeric keyboards when typing on the iPhone and the lack of multitasking.

  • http://www.williampetruzzo.com/ William

    I run my business almost entirely on my iPhone. I had difficulty with the keyboard for the first couple weeks, but now virtually nothing slows me down even when entering complicated passwords. Apple would have to go out of business to pry this little device from my fingers!

    Once my business switched over to apple products, productivity increased ten fold. I doubt I'll ever look at RIM or Microsoft products ever again.

  • Clairvoire

    It's nice to see technology evolve. At least, in ways that aren't flawed and stupid. A piano and a keyboard is a very apt analogy. Why would you pick that to attack? It is like picking one of the many bullet proof surfaces of a tank, and firing your pistol into it. I'll enjoy to see you counter that analogy, haha.

    But either way, the fact a touch screen is flawed isn't it's fault. It's just because phones are small. Tactile keyboards at that size are also a pain in the ass. If you want to type something involved, don't do it on your phone, do it on a keyboard. A full you-need-a-desk keyboard. Technology can make stuff we use smaller, but that doesn't make it better.