By W. David Gardner
InformationWeek
July 10, 2007 02:35 PM

Apple's iPhone Gets Early Business Buyers, Users

 

The head of a boutique design and marketing firm surprised his employees by giving them iPhones, but it still may not be for every enterprise.

Two "firsts" may have been recorded for the iPhone on Tuesday as a Baltimore firm reported it is in the vanguard of enterprise purchases of the handset and a music-licensing company said it may be the first to license a song on the iPhone.

Mike Karfakis, president and CEO of Vitamin, a boutique design and marketing firm, surprised his employees by giving them iPhones. Noting that Vitamin's five employees spend at least 80% of their working hours online, Karfakis said the devices are invaluable for online research, blog reading, podcast listening, e-mail sending, and video watching.

"My favorite feature would have to be complete access to Web sites as they appear on your home computer," Karfakis said in an e-mail. "Apple has completely flipped the script on how the Internet is now integrated with palm devices. In the past PDA-accessible sites needed to be created for palm devices. With the iPhone, Apple has created a device that makes the existing Internet accessible."

It's still too soon to tell how the iPhone will sell in enterprise situations; before the launch of the mobile phone, some IT consultants and specialists cautioned companies to be wary of the iPhone in enterprise situations.

Vitamin, which counsels its customers on marketing and branding, believes the iPhones will help it stay in the forefront of branding aesthetics, in part because of the iPhone's image as a leading-edge product, the company said.

Also on Tuesday, Rumblefish, a sonic branding and music-licensing agency, said it licensed a song by a group called the Procussions in an action that took less than three minutes. Rumblefish said it believes the licensing was the first song to be so licensed on the iPhone.

"Rumblefish has revolutionized music licensing, taking a confusing process and making it so easy that you can license a song from your phone," Rumblefish CEO Paul Anthony said in a statement.