APN/PDP authorisation error workaround for iPhone3G (and maybe iPhone 2.0)
I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this, you’re aware of what APN is, and/or you’ve experienced a “PDP Authorisation Error” when trying to surf the web over 3G. I’ve decided to write this up because days of scouring the web for a work-around turned up almost nothing, and I hope assuage other user’s frustrations.

Preamble: For some obscure reason (probably due to a hasty activation procedure at the store), my iPhone3G was configured with the wrong APN setting. “Everything” worked except 3G internet connectivity. I was on a licensed carrier (Vodafone Italia), and as such, there was no “blocking” to deal with. Quite simply, it was jammed.

Now, if you’re reading this, you’ve probably realised that there isn’t any way for the end-user to edit APN settings in the iPhone3G’s firmware, notwithstanding why you need to change it in the first place.

I had read that by restarting the iPhone3G with a non-licensed SIM card would induce software to make the APN setting user-editable, but I didn’t want to try that (and, in practical terms, I didn’t have a suitable SIM card available to experiment with). Calls to the carrier (Vodafone Italia) were fruitless.

Anyway, the work-around is not complex. Apple has released three related “iPhone Configuration Utilities” (one stand-alone app for OSX, and two web-based apps for Windows and OSX respectively). I used the stand-alone app available here. The relevant Deployment Guide is available as a PDF file. Long story short, these utilities allow the creation of corporate-centric “profiles” for configuring iPhones en masse, exposing core settings including APN settings. The Deployment Guide explains that profiles uploaded to an iPhone override the native configuration: this suggested to me that I could create a profile to patch the incorrect APN setting and enable 3G browsing.

The first step is to open the application and create a new Profile. In the General tab you must assign the profile a unique profile identifier (notice the red circle & arrow). This is the way your iPhone compares profiles: no name = no game. Names must be of the form com.something.somethingelse, for the sake of argument lets say I chose com.mycompany.iphoneAPN as my profile name. Giving the profile a sensible Name and Description is probably useful for future reference, but not mandatory.

Next, choose the “Advanced” tab, and then “Configure”. In the first box, you can specify the correct APN address: in my case I knew it had to be web.omnitel.it, so I wrote it here. Now, if you have a username and password you must also specify them here. If that’s the case, type them in, and then select File > Export… The result is an XML file with extension .mobileconfig.

It’s then up to you to figure out a way of getting the file onto your iPhone: I joined a WiFi net and pushed it to myself by email; alternatively you can dump it onto a web-server and navigate to it. Upon selecting the file, your iPhone will present you with the option to Install, and you should be finished.

However, I was faced by a rather ironic situation: my APN access does not require neither passwords nor usernames. In other words, they must be specified blank. Leaving them empty and exporting the profile worked, but when pushed onto the iPhone it refused to install because “username and password are incorrectly formatted”, or an error to that effect.

Therefore, I specified username “Fred” and password “Bob”. Then I exported the file to my desktop and opened it in BBEdit, but any text editor will do. Searching for the string “Fred” instantly located a keypair denoted
Quote:
username
Fred
I simply deleted the value “Fred” so the final code was
Quote:
username

Nearby was a keypair
Quote:
password
HWkbwdKHBJ
This is presumably a hashed copy of my chosen password “Bob”. I again deleted the value, so it became
Quote:
password

I saved the edited file, and pushed it up to my iPhone using the email method outlined above. Within instants, I was happily surfing the web using 3G.

Note The iPhone Configuration Utility sensibly allows the creation of signed profiles, and in general these are to be preferred, but signed certificates are not editable. Therefore, for this work-around to work, you must accept create and install a non-signed certificate.

I hope this is useful for anyone else experiencing the same maddening problem. It goes without saying that messing around with this kind of utility and setting always carries a certain degree of risk, and if you mess something up in the process, it isn’t my fault.
__________________
Place me in the company of those who seek Truth, but deliver me from those who believe to have found it.

One of the features added to the latest revision of the Apple iPhone operating system that’s garnered quite a bit of attention is the ability to save Web page bookmark icons directly on the main screen of the phone. Experimentation reveals that some sites have cool icons while most are just miniature representations of the Web site. What’s the difference? Read on and find out, including step-by-step directions on how you can easily ensure your own site (or blog!) has a custom iPhone icon too.

I’ve had a variety of different cellphones in the last few years as the technology underlying the cellular network has evolved from being about phone calls to offering up a wide variety of services, many of which have a small but growing price tag associated. A year ago I had just bought a Blackberry Pearl and was finding it a wonderful evolutionary step from the Motorola RAZR which, upon reflection, was all about the form factor and definitely not about the phone capabilities (especially with the crippled Verizon RAZR operating system).

The Apple iPhone represents a significant step in the evolution of these phone systems, however, because, like the iPod itself, Apple continually tweaks and tunes the operating system with updates. I can recall at least five updates since the phone was released, updates that generally improved stability and functionality, but also added new features and even entirely new applications (in this case I’m thinking of access to the iTunes Store, which just *poof* appeared one day).

The latest update to the phone, 1.1.3, added a very important new feature to the phone system, one that finally gives you the ability to truly customize and tweak the phone’s base screen for your personal tastes and requirements: Home Screen Bookmarks.

Let me show you how it works, then I’ll explain how to make a custom icon for those bookmarks too.

Here’s AskDaveTaylor as shown in the iPhone Safari browser:
Apple iPhone: Safari: Viewing Ask Dave Taylor Tech Support

Cute, eh? Everything in miniature, even my shrunken voodoo head.

To bookmark this - or any other page - you simply tap on the “+” symbol along the bottom of the screen, which brings up:
Apple iPhone: Safari: Creating a Bookmark for Ask Dave Taylor Tech Support

“Add Bookmark” adds it to your bookmark menu, but the interesting feature here is Add to Home Screen. Tap it and you’ll now have a chance to fine-tune the name of the bookmark:
Apple iPhone: Safari: Naming Bookmark for Ask Dave Taylor Tech Support

In this instance, shorter is definitely better. Even here, by adding the ” 2″ to the default “Tech Support” it kinda messes up the display on the iPhone screen, showing “Tech…port 2″ to fit. Instead, I’ll actually skip the “2″ so you can see the default home screen bookmark:
Apple iPhone: Safari: Home Page bookmark - default - for Ask Dave Taylor Tech Support

It’s kind of hard to see, but the icon itself is a tiny representation of the home page of the site, with the “Ask Dave” button supplying the red dot on the right side. Above and to the right you can see custom home page bookmark icons for Meebo.com and Twitter.com.

How’d they do it and how can I have my own custom icon too?

It’s surprisingly easy. You need to create a PNG format graphic file that’s 45×45 pixels in size, name it apple-touch-icon.png and drop it in the root directory of your Web site. Here’s what I had my graphics guy create:
Apple iPhone / iPod Touch custom icon

You’ll notice that it’s just a regular rectangular graphic image with no rounded corners or other fancy stuff. I’ve added the gray edge so you can see how big it is too, that’s not part of the graphic. Later you’ll see that the iPhone itself automatically rounds off the corners and adds a slight glassy reflection on the top half of the icon to make it more three-dimensional.

Anyway, adding that graphic is enough that when I again try to bookmark the AskDaveTaylor site with a home page bookmark on the iPhone, it’s a much improved icon:
Apple iPhone: Safari: Custom home page bookmark icon

Cool, eh? I’m now busy creating similar little icons for all of my sites so that iPhone users can enjoy shortcuts to all of my sites.

If you can’t add the icon graphic to the root directory of your Web site, or just want to keep things organized in subfolders, you can add a link command to specify a different filename or different location for the apple-touch-icon.png file:

That’s all there is to it. Go forth, create your icon, and enjoy!
Thanks to Dan Dickinson, Anil Dash and, of course, Apple for detailing exactly how to accomplish this nifty trick.

Here’s the process for all us Windows users who want to upgrade to firmware 2.0. It involves WinPwn and a custom firmware. Check out my winpwn guide here.

Step 1: Use WinPWN 1.0 To PWN Your 1.1.4 iPhone. If you need WinPWN Get it: http://www.winpwn.com/files/winpwn_1.0.0.3_RC1_Setup.zip
Step 2: Install BootNeuter (Available Via Installer).
Step 3: Run BootNeuter and have it Neuter your iphone
Step 4: Make sure your iTunes version is at 7.7
Step 5: Grab a pre-created IPSW Made with PWNAGE 2.0 Mac. If you dont have one made you can grab one here: http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4305453/iThor__s_iPhone_2.0_Custom_Firmware_Vanilla_(5A347)
Step 6:Put your phone into recovery or DFU mode.
Step 7: In iTunes Shif+Click the Restore button and find your custom IPSW Firmware file.
Step 8: Wait for it to complete! ENJOY!

Thanks to BigBoss

UPDATE: 3G iPhone’s Battery Life Beats AT&T Rivals–But EvDO BlackBerrys Run Longer

The
3G iPhone’s sub-6-hour battery life gets a word score of Fair from the
PC World Test Center, bested only by EvDO BlackBerry models.

More than 550 new applications arrived for the iPhone and iPod touch this morning in iTunes’ brand new App Store
and more than 130 of them are available for free. Today we’re taking a
look at the best free applications for your iPhone and iPod touch,
available once you’ve got iTunes 7.7 and the iPhone 2.0 software update
installed.

Note: Most of the apps listed here work with both
iPhones and iPod touch models, but we’ve noted where an app requires
the iPhone’s voice, SMS, or GPS capabilities to run.

Remote Controls Your iTunes Library

The iTunes App Store’s marquee freebie, the Remote app turns your
iPhone or iPod touch into a remote control for your media library.
Remote works almost exactly like the iPod application on your
device—the main difference being that rather than playing back music on
your iPhone or iPod touch, you’ve got access to your entire iTunes
library and you’re playing it over your computer’s speakers.
Read more about setting up and using the Remote app>>

Google Mobile is Quicksilver for the iPhone/iPod touch

Google already has a fast and slick iPhone version,
but this app is hyper-optimized for quick searching. Search-as-you-type
results spin up for web pages, click-to-call business and residential
phone listings, nearby stores and restaurants, and more—and Google
Mobile’s brought to you by the guy who made one of our favorite free
launcher desktop apps, Quicksilver.
Read more about how Google Mobile searches your contacts and the web>>

Jott Transcribes Speech to Text

iPhone only: Free voice-to-text service Jott
is a natural fit for an iPhone app, and its implementation here is
pretty nifty. You can simply say a note into the recording interface
(at right), and it’ll show up in your Jott notes (or on Google
Calendar, Remember the Milk, or Jott-connected applications).
You can also simply type a note in, making the Jott app a quick
interface for a lot of web apps. Managing all your notes with
finger-swipe deletion is pretty handy as well.

Evernote

The universal stuff-gathering site Evernote
gives you all the major tools of its desktop and web software in its
iPhone app—add text, snap a phone cam shot, record a memo, or upload a
photo, and it’s all available for organizing, tagging, or searching
later. New in this interface is a straight-forward voice recorder; if
you’d rather have your audio transcribed, you can use the Jott app as a
gateway to Evernote.
Given that even free users of Evernote can have the service scan their
pictures and extract visible text, Evernote’s app makes your iPhone a
serious universal capture device.

NetNewsWire

As Adam has detailed, users of desktop-based readers like NetNewsWire (Mac) or FeedDemon
(Windows) have their reasons for sticking with them. NetNewsWire for
iPhone syncs with either of those clients, meaning you won’t read the
same items twice. There’s a “Clippings” feature for setting items aside
for later (or when you’ll be offline) that also syncs to your desktop,
and the interface is straightforward—and that’s about it. If you’re a
Google Reader addict, you’re already set up with GReader’s iPhone beta view.
Read more about how NetNewsWire brings synced RSS feeds to Your iPhone>>

Zenbe Lists

Free service Zenbe
works as a multi-account mail organizer in its web form, but they’ve
stuck with to-do-style lists for their iPhone app. Those lists,
however, can be edited on any browser and synced back to your Zenbe
account, or published on an iGoogle page. The real benefit, though, is
sharing with other Zenbe Lists users. Anyone you share with can then
edit and update your list and sync them back to you—a kind of nifty
no-real-computer-required list wiki.

Yelp

The iPhone app for business review site Yelp
takes good advantage of your location-aware device to dish up the
details on nearby restaurants, bars, gas and service stations, and much
more. There’s a custom search function too, so you can always know when
you’re in the presence of, say, high-quality sushi while you’re
traveling, and how much reviewers say it’s going to cost you. A great
app for traveling, or just seeing what the hive says about your home
town.
Read more about finding and filtering everything around you with Yelp>>

Save Benjis

Save
Benjis (as in the face on the bills) makes it seriously convenient to
compare prices on online purchases, or the gadget that’s sitting right
in front of you at the store. Type in a name, a product ID number, or
other details, and you’ll get a list back with links and prices from
Amazon, NewEgg, and other online merchants. If you’ve ever wondered how
much markup you’re paying to grab that gear now, wonder no more. Saving
Benjis also integrates well with Amazon for making actual purchases.
Read more about comparing prices on the fly with Save Benjis>>

Talking Phrasebook (French, Italian, German, Spanish)

Translation
tools and dual-language dictionaries are great, but sometimes, you
really just need to ask “How much to park here?” in German. The Talking
Phrasebook apps offer phrases you’ll want to know translated from
English to Spanish, French, German, and Italian, and you can click to
hear them pronounced (or, perhaps, just have your iPhone speak for you).
Read more about getting the words you need quickly with Talking Phrasebook>>

Midomi

iPhone only: This one’s not terribly productive—unless you’re the type to spend far too much time trying to name that song you just can’t remember.
For those moments, or for proving a friend right/wrong, Midomi is a
true gift. You can type in an artist or song name to get more info (and
you can write it phonetically), but the true joy is in humming or
singing a few bars into your iPhone, waiting a bit, then seeing your
song title come back. You can also hold your phone up to the music
itself, and Midomi will try to ID it. Seriously neat stuff.
Read more about Midomi—and watch a video demonstration—at Gizmodo>>

Where

One of the most comprehensive location-aware apps in the Store, Where
gives you all sorts of location-based information—like where the
nearest restaurants, Zip cars, gas stations, and Starbucks locations
are in relation to you. Enable Buddy Beacon to see nearby friends also
using Where. Get to know the new place you’re visiting—or even your
hometown—with one of the coolest features, called HeyWhatsThat, which
identifies landmarks you can see from your location—like the names of
nearby mountains and overhead constellations.

AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)

Send and receive instant messages over Wi-Fi, EDGE, or 3G networks, and
manage your AIM buddy list right on your device with the AIM iPhone
app.

PayPal

Send money from your iPhone or iPod touch to anyone—like your dinner
companion when you’re splitting the bill—with the PayPal app. You’ve
been able to send money via SMS using PayPal for some time now, but the app makes it even easier—it keeps you from having to remember the text message format.

Aside: Gedeon Maheux points out that six iTunes Store Apps listed under Productivity use the check mark as their icon. Group-think! [via Daring Fireball]

We’ll be updating this list with more free apps as we download and test
‘em out. What should we look at next? Post your favorite free iPhone
application in the comments, and vote for the best you’ve seen (so far)
below.

Selling big business on the iPhone

Apple is taking a new, corporate-friendly tack with the iPhone. Will it work?

Some Fortune 500 companies are cautiously embracing the new business-friendly iPhone.

2008 FORTUNE 500

Full list: FORTUNE 1000

Wal-Mart Exxon Mobil Chevron GM ConocoPhillips

GE Ford Motor Citigroup B of A AT&T

Top companies in your state

Best to work for

Most profitable

Best investments

Most profitable big techs

Galleries:

• • Women CEOs
• • The biggest losers
• • Faces of the 500’s future

Stories:

• • Why the party’s over

More from Fortune

The evolution of John McCain Saudis: Don’t blame us for oil prices Hard times for the smart money

FORTUNE 500 Current Issue Subscribe to Fortune

(Fortune)
– Steve Jobs has won over legions of new customers since he returned
to Apple, but one key group has stubbornly eluded him: big business.

The
reason isn’t a mystery. Apple’s mercurial CEO decided a decade ago that
corporate IT departments weren’t worth the trouble. Though they buy
tech gear by the truckload, when it comes to computers they often favor
stripped-down, predictable technology - the stuff Jobs finds boring.
Rather than chase that business, he has courted upscale consumers with
innovative devices like the iMac and iPod that are as fashionable as
they are functional. It’s hard to argue with the results: Apple stock
is up more than 2,000 percent in the last 10 years.

But now as
Jobs seeks to turbocharge sales of the 3G iPhone, he’ll have no choice
but to embrace the corporate stiffs. That’s because while Apple’s
computer and iPod sales are healthy, analysts believe the popular
smartphone has the most growth potential - and business buyers could be
the key to its success.

Can Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500)
do it? With its strong brand and balance sheet, experts say now might
be the perfect time to try. But the real question is whether Apple is
willing to put the money and time into the humdrum work of treating
businesses like first-class customers.

In
the iPhone’s realm, the most coveted customers are road warriors who
read e-mail, surf the web, and handle multimedia files on the go. To
date, most of them have embraced Research in Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry, and devices running software from Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500)
or Symbian. But investors, believing that the iPhone can steal those
customers away, have recently bid up Apple’s stock. Analysts believe
the company can sell between 20 million and 45 million units worldwide
next year.

Mark Tauschek, an analyst with Info-Tech Research
Group, notes that though business buyers make up only 30 percent of
phone users, they spend the most money. “To reach these lofty goals
they have to make the leap to enterprise sales,” he says. “That’s where
most of the pickup is.”

There are already signs Apple is warming
to businesses. The latest version of the iPhone, which is due to go on
sale July 11, doesn’t come in retail-friendly candy colors; instead,
it’s packed with features right off an IT manager’s wish list: tighter
security, support for Microsoft Exchange and Office, and software tools
that let businesses roll their own custom applications, to name a few.

The
new capabilities are enough to get Apple’s handpicked group of outside
corporate testers excited about the device; 35 percent of the Fortune
500, including Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500), Disney (DIS, Fortune 500) and Genentech (DNA),
signed up to try out the software and tell Apple how to make it better.
“Everything they told us they wanted we have built into iPhone 2.0
software out of the box,” Jobs said when he unveiled it this month.

But now that they’ve tested it, will they buy? We won’t know for several months. Wachovia (WB, Fortune 500) technology chief Jim Ditmore expects to include the iPhone among the devices employees can use for e-mail by October.

At Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500),
Steve Ellis, executive VP of wholesale services, notes that workers
can’t wait to get their hands on iPhones - he says he fielded two dozen
employee e-mails the day Apple unveiled the business features. But
while Ellis says he found Apple wonderful to work with, he acknowledges
that winning over other IT managers could be a challenge for a company
used to wowing consumers. “Enterprise is kind of a new thing for them.”

Gartner
analyst Ken Dulaney puts it more bluntly. “Apple’s reputation’s not
good. Most of the companies I talk to say that when they bring the
Apple rep in, the first thing he says is, ‘Why should we work with
you?’ Not the kinds of practices that endear you to the enterprise.”

And
while Apple’s dramatic product unveilings may thrill consumers and the
press, they just annoy businesses, which prefer to plan for new
technology well in advance. Apple’s decision to build all iPhones
itself and offer U.S. service exclusively through AT&T has Gartner
recommending that clients avoid using specially developed iPhone
software and stick with e-mail, calendar and contacts. That way, if
relations with Apple or AT&T (T, Fortune 500) go sour, they can easily switch to something like BlackBerry or Microsoft.

That
may sort-of defeat the purpose of getting an iPhone - but businesses
can’t afford to put all their eggs in one basket. Says Dulaney: “The
iPhone does have a place in the enterprise. It just might not be as
broad as something like Windows Mobile.”

Given all the hype
around the iPhone’s advanced features, that seems an odd statement -
but it reflects the skeptical tone several experts struck about Apple’s
chances of storming corporate America. Companies in highly visual
industries like insurance and media might take a chance on the iPhone
early. But others will hang back to see whether they can get by with
phones from companies whose products and customer service they’re used
to working with already.

If Apple has a grand plan to beef up its
customer service and overcome those perceptions, it isn’t sharing. (An
Apple spokesman declined to comment beyond what the company has
publicly stated about its plans.) But the company has plenty of
options. A cash stash of nearly $20 billion gives Jobs the resources to
buy a top-notch service organization if he chooses. The company’s
AppleCare program for consumer service is highly rated, and he could
expand it for business.

In a pinch, Jobs could also rely on
wireless carrier partners to take the lead in sales and support. In the
U.S., AT&T seems eager to fill that role. The carrier is the top
seller of the BlackBerry and Windows Mobile smartphones, and has
promised to “aggressively” sell the iPhone “to more than 120,000
companies - including all of the Fortune 1000″ when it arrives on July
11, according to company spokesman Brad Mays.

But Jobs is
apparently not content to let AT&T handle everything. Though
AT&T says it will be the “point person” for business customers, its
tech support teams are responsible only for dealing with network
service issues for the iPhone. For all hardware and software problems -
such as dead batteries or cracked touchscreens - customers will have to
make an extra call to Apple. That’s different from the way AT&T
deals with RIM and other hardware makers; for them, it handles all
customer contact and brings in the device maker to make fixes behind
the scenes.

“We’re evaluating this [arrangement], and if it seems
to make sense for us to take on some of the responsibility on the
device side as well, we would be open to doing that,” says Jeff
Bradley, senior vice president of small business mobility marketing and
operations at AT&T.

Even
though Apple hasn’t charted a detailed corporate strategy, no one’s
counting the company out. Even its critics say the combination of
well-designed software and popular hardware could be hard to resist.

Al Delattre, global managing director of Accenture’s (ACN)
electronics and high technology business practice, predicts that the
iPhone could get a foothold in corporations as employees simply bring
them in, one by one, and pressure their IT departments to make sure
they work with corporate systems.

But it will take something
extra for Apple to make a real impact. “All the major handset
providers, if they want to play at the enterprise level, have got to
have absolutely bulletproof, ironclad, global, 24-7 support,” Delattre
says.

If Apple means business, that’s what needs to happen.

Selling big business on the iPhone

Apple is taking a new, corporate-friendly tack with the iPhone. Will it work?

Some Fortune 500 companies are cautiously embracing the new business-friendly iPhone.

2008 FORTUNE 500

Full list: FORTUNE 1000

Wal-Mart Exxon Mobil Chevron GM ConocoPhillips

GE Ford Motor Citigroup B of A AT&T

Top companies in your state

Best to work for

Most profitable

Best investments

Most profitable big techs

Galleries:

• • Women CEOs
• • The biggest losers
• • Faces of the 500’s future

Stories:

• • Why the party’s over

More from Fortune

The evolution of John McCain Saudis: Don’t blame us for oil prices Hard times for the smart money

FORTUNE 500 Current Issue Subscribe to Fortune

(Fortune)
– Steve Jobs has won over legions of new customers since he returned
to Apple, but one key group has stubbornly eluded him: big business.

The
reason isn’t a mystery. Apple’s mercurial CEO decided a decade ago that
corporate IT departments weren’t worth the trouble. Though they buy
tech gear by the truckload, when it comes to computers they often favor
stripped-down, predictable technology - the stuff Jobs finds boring.
Rather than chase that business, he has courted upscale consumers with
innovative devices like the iMac and iPod that are as fashionable as
they are functional. It’s hard to argue with the results: Apple stock
is up more than 2,000 percent in the last 10 years.

But now as
Jobs seeks to turbocharge sales of the 3G iPhone, he’ll have no choice
but to embrace the corporate stiffs. That’s because while Apple’s
computer and iPod sales are healthy, analysts believe the popular
smartphone has the most growth potential - and business buyers could be
the key to its success.

Can Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500)
do it? With its strong brand and balance sheet, experts say now might
be the perfect time to try. But the real question is whether Apple is
willing to put the money and time into the humdrum work of treating
businesses like first-class customers.

In
the iPhone’s realm, the most coveted customers are road warriors who
read e-mail, surf the web, and handle multimedia files on the go. To
date, most of them have embraced Research in Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry, and devices running software from Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500)
or Symbian. But investors, believing that the iPhone can steal those
customers away, have recently bid up Apple’s stock. Analysts believe
the company can sell between 20 million and 45 million units worldwide
next year.

Mark Tauschek, an analyst with Info-Tech Research
Group, notes that though business buyers make up only 30 percent of
phone users, they spend the most money. “To reach these lofty goals
they have to make the leap to enterprise sales,” he says. “That’s where
most of the pickup is.”

There are already signs Apple is warming
to businesses. The latest version of the iPhone, which is due to go on
sale July 11, doesn’t come in retail-friendly candy colors; instead,
it’s packed with features right off an IT manager’s wish list: tighter
security, support for Microsoft Exchange and Office, and software tools
that let businesses roll their own custom applications, to name a few.

The
new capabilities are enough to get Apple’s handpicked group of outside
corporate testers excited about the device; 35 percent of the Fortune
500, including Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500), Disney (DIS, Fortune 500) and Genentech (DNA),
signed up to try out the software and tell Apple how to make it better.
“Everything they told us they wanted we have built into iPhone 2.0
software out of the box,” Jobs said when he unveiled it this month.

But now that they’ve tested it, will they buy? We won’t know for several months. Wachovia (WB, Fortune 500) technology chief Jim Ditmore expects to include the iPhone among the devices employees can use for e-mail by October.

At Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500),
Steve Ellis, executive VP of wholesale services, notes that workers
can’t wait to get their hands on iPhones - he says he fielded two dozen
employee e-mails the day Apple unveiled the business features. But
while Ellis says he found Apple wonderful to work with, he acknowledges
that winning over other IT managers could be a challenge for a company
used to wowing consumers. “Enterprise is kind of a new thing for them.”

Gartner
analyst Ken Dulaney puts it more bluntly. “Apple’s reputation’s not
good. Most of the companies I talk to say that when they bring the
Apple rep in, the first thing he says is, ‘Why should we work with
you?’ Not the kinds of practices that endear you to the enterprise.”

And
while Apple’s dramatic product unveilings may thrill consumers and the
press, they just annoy businesses, which prefer to plan for new
technology well in advance. Apple’s decision to build all iPhones
itself and offer U.S. service exclusively through AT&T has Gartner
recommending that clients avoid using specially developed iPhone
software and stick with e-mail, calendar and contacts. That way, if
relations with Apple or AT&T (T, Fortune 500) go sour, they can easily switch to something like BlackBerry or Microsoft.

That
may sort-of defeat the purpose of getting an iPhone - but businesses
can’t afford to put all their eggs in one basket. Says Dulaney: “The
iPhone does have a place in the enterprise. It just might not be as
broad as something like Windows Mobile.”

Given all the hype
around the iPhone’s advanced features, that seems an odd statement -
but it reflects the skeptical tone several experts struck about Apple’s
chances of storming corporate America. Companies in highly visual
industries like insurance and media might take a chance on the iPhone
early. But others will hang back to see whether they can get by with
phones from companies whose products and customer service they’re used
to working with already.

If Apple has a grand plan to beef up its
customer service and overcome those perceptions, it isn’t sharing. (An
Apple spokesman declined to comment beyond what the company has
publicly stated about its plans.) But the company has plenty of
options. A cash stash of nearly $20 billion gives Jobs the resources to
buy a top-notch service organization if he chooses. The company’s
AppleCare program for consumer service is highly rated, and he could
expand it for business.

In a pinch, Jobs could also rely on
wireless carrier partners to take the lead in sales and support. In the
U.S., AT&T seems eager to fill that role. The carrier is the top
seller of the BlackBerry and Windows Mobile smartphones, and has
promised to “aggressively” sell the iPhone “to more than 120,000
companies - including all of the Fortune 1000″ when it arrives on July
11, according to company spokesman Brad Mays.

But Jobs is
apparently not content to let AT&T handle everything. Though
AT&T says it will be the “point person” for business customers, its
tech support teams are responsible only for dealing with network
service issues for the iPhone. For all hardware and software problems -
such as dead batteries or cracked touchscreens - customers will have to
make an extra call to Apple. That’s different from the way AT&T
deals with RIM and other hardware makers; for them, it handles all
customer contact and brings in the device maker to make fixes behind
the scenes.

“We’re evaluating this [arrangement], and if it seems
to make sense for us to take on some of the responsibility on the
device side as well, we would be open to doing that,” says Jeff
Bradley, senior vice president of small business mobility marketing and
operations at AT&T.

Even
though Apple hasn’t charted a detailed corporate strategy, no one’s
counting the company out. Even its critics say the combination of
well-designed software and popular hardware could be hard to resist.

Al Delattre, global managing director of Accenture’s (ACN)
electronics and high technology business practice, predicts that the
iPhone could get a foothold in corporations as employees simply bring
them in, one by one, and pressure their IT departments to make sure
they work with corporate systems.

But it will take something
extra for Apple to make a real impact. “All the major handset
providers, if they want to play at the enterprise level, have got to
have absolutely bulletproof, ironclad, global, 24-7 support,” Delattre
says.

If Apple means business, that’s what needs to happen.