Sybase: Apple's iPhone 4 likely to solidify enterprise traction

By Larry Dignan | June 21, 2010, 7:25am PDT

Summary: Apple’s upcoming iPhone 4 is likely to increase the device’s usage in the enterprise, according to a survey commissioned by Sybase and conducted by Zogby International.

Apple’s upcoming iPhone 4 is likely to increase the device’s usage in the enterprise, according to a survey commissioned by Sybase and conducted by Zogby International.
A few high-level takeaways:

• 56 percent of iPhone owners says new features in iPhone 4—notably multitasking, sorting emails by subject and remote wipe—are likely to allow them to use the device more for work purposes.
• More than a third of respondents who don’t own an iPhone 4 would consider one for work. Those respondents didn’t work for companies that provided them mobile devices.
• 43 percent of respondents said multitasking was the iPhone 4’s most important feature.
• 5 percent said FaceTime was an important work feature.
• 64 percent of iPhone owners use the device at least once a week for work.
• 20 percent of respondents use third-party business applications downloaded than iTunes.
• But only 13 percent their companies’ enterprise applications for the iPhone.

The Zogby poll comes as Sybase expanded support for Apple’s iOS4 with its enterprise mobility suite. The release of Sybase Afaria will support iPhone and iPads and meld corporate security practices with the devices. Afaria delivers enterprise applications and corporate policies over the air. Sybase will support iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices.

Related: AT&T exec: 4 out of 10 of our iPhone sales to enterprises Apple’s quiet iPhone enterprise efforts yield results

Afaria will be available in as a beta in July with general availability following in the third quarter. Here’s a look at Afaria’s architecture: