In the beginning, the iPhone's drawbacks will likely outnumber the draws for business IT. The most glaring being, the iPhone is yet one more device and another platform -- the iPhone runs on a slimmer version of Mac OS X -- which will need to be supported. No one can deny the device's beauty, but can it functionally compare with the smartphones already on the market. 

One of the main corporate qualms with the iPhone will be its lack of software flexibility. Apple is locking down the device, meaning that only applications Apple approves can be installed. That means no enterprise apps for now, and Jobs didn't mention data encryption, remote wiping, or enterprise policy enforcement in his keynote.

The iPhone, at $499 to $599, certainly isn't cheap. The cost is considerably more than many Windows Mobile/BlackBerry devices. It's yet to be seen if the iPhone will even handle Microsoft Office attachments which businesses primarily rely on. It's also not clear how well the phone's calendaring function will work with Exchange and Lotus Notes. And even though the iPhone will have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities, it doesn't appear that users will be able to wirelessly sync with their computers.

Another minus comes from Apple's exclusive deal with Cingular. Corporations typically aren't using Cingular's network, instead they are opting for Verizon Wireless or Sprint/Nextel as their mobile carriers, and vendor lock-in means companies won't have as much leverage on price. The iPhone won't even run on the most current wireless network, using Cingular's 100-Kbps EDGE network rather than the 3G network (most likely to limit media downloads via Cingular's MediaNet program), which runs at speeds up to 10 times faster, that Cingular supports for a number of its smart phones, including the new Treo 750.

Despite the negatives, the cache that could come with the iPhone and the device's already generous feature set and sleek form -- a touchscreen with almost no buttons -- may bring executives into the fold, forcing support for the device, if only for those few top employees. " Just as the BlackBerry for a time was exclusive for executives, there are places where price is less of an issue and this product is very enticing for them," says Forrester's Golvin.

There are plenty of features available today that could make an enterprise user happy. Conference calls are as easy as a "merge calls" button when a third party calls in. Users can choose what voicemails they want to listen to after seeing who they came from. Text messages can be reviewed in threaded conversations instead of lists of messages sent and received. The modified Safari browser on the phone displays full Web pages instead of tiny, dumbed-down versions. The e-mail works with any IMAP or POP3 e-mail service, both of which Microsoft Exchange supports. Phone numbers found in e-mails become click-to-call links (which isn't all new, Blackberry and Good have supported that for some time.) Keep in mind, it is still 6 months before the actual launch of the iPhone.  Many more features will likely become available during this time.

Looking further into the future, the same adoption arc that came with the first smartphones may happen to the iPhone. Consumers will buy the product; Apple hopes to sell 10 million of the phones by the end of 2008. The notion that Apple may plan feature adds and extend its set of "trusted" applications won't hurt matters.

No matter what, you can be assured there will be some iPhone's within the corporate world.  There are few other technologies where employees have as much IT buying and support power as in mobile devices. What started as a means for executives to roam free with first-generation BlackBerries has spread like wildfire, and now everyone from salesmen to aides on Capitol Hill type furiously away at all hours. Though there are some stumbling blocks to get over, in the end the iPhone could very well find itself among the top of enterprise smartphones like the Treo and BlackBerry.