“Apple failing business customers”

IDC research director  Lars Vestergaard said at IDC Unified Communications Conference 2008 in London last week Apple is failing customers by not producing products that are compatible with office and mobile equipment by other manufacturers.

Vestergaard told delegates: “Apple doesn’t have a clue when it comes to unified communications. It has no roadmap for the kind of applications it will need to enable [customers] to integrate [Apple] with other systems.

“Research shows 25 per cent of all smartphones will be iPhones, in the near future, and if there’s no linkage I don’t know what will happen.”

He reflected: “Nokia gets it. It gets unified comms.”

HP master technologist David Banthorpe also underlined the importance for device interoperability.

He said: “It should be a multi-vendor solution – no single vendor will have the right answer for every particular customer.”

Vestergaard stressed the importance of convergence products and services for working and capital efficiencies. He also suggested, when it comes to integrating mobiles, devices must work with at least three  operating systems as the premium smartphone market expands.

Vestergaard said 2009 will be an important year for roll out of unified communications solutions. “I’m disappointed in the take up in the UK. Most [hardware and service providers] think it is enough that mobility has been good here. Tying systems together doesn’t seem to be considered so important.”

Microsoft unified communications product manager Mark Deakin agreed vendors are failing customers, but said customer awareness is not great either. “New graduates arriving at work today are finding they have better technology at home than in the work place,” he said.

The Communication Management Association (CMA), the representative body for IT buyers, said 22 per cent of its members work for companies that had plans to implement a fixed/mobile convergence strategy within the next 12 months. But 44 per cent had no such plans.

“It is being deployed, but cautiously,” said CMA chief executive Glenn Powell. BT, Vodafone and Cisco Systems are, in order, the brands most associated with convergence, said the CMA.

Deakin observed new mobile phones and ways of working make convergence essential now.

“Mobile phones are the next small piece of computing. The way people work now, away from the office, is another catalyst.

“People say, ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’. Well, it is broken if people are having trouble communicating. I should be able to see if someone is around before I spend five minutes writing to them on email just to get an out-of-office reply. That’s time wasted.”

Banthorpe said unified communications solutions should be sold into SMEs as well as corporates. “The whole process is valid on any scale,” he said.