Apple Primes the iPhone for Enterprise

Apple (AAPL - commentary - Cramer's Take) shares had fallen 40% through the beginning of this week, but the shares rose nicely Wednesday (+3.2%, easily outpacing the Nasdaq), and based on premarket trading, are poised for more today. While some point to the recent updates for the MacBook line of notebook computers, I believe the move centers around reassuring management comments and a recently confirmed iPhone event for next week that should have a few good announcements. This bodes well for the shares, at least in the short term.

First the iPhone

One of the criticisms of the iPhone is that it is not geared for the enterprise market, and so far, wireless carriers have not been pushing it for that market. More specifically, the main criticism centers on its limited support for Microsoft's Exchange email platform. However, that could be about to change.

On March 6, Apple is holding an event for analysts and the media to formally announce plans for its highly anticipated iPhone and iPod Touch software developers' kit (SDK) that would allow third-party applications to run on the device. Those applications, which in my mind more resemble the weather, stocks and maps widgets currently on the device, would bring a lot more functionality, and that is saying something, given how easy and useful the iPhone currently is.

In addition to outlining the procedures developers will need to follow in order to author and distribute their own applications through iTunes, Apple's invite suggests that the company will reveal some enterprise-geared features for the device.

As widely reported on the web over the last few months and had been evident by job postings over at Apple, the company has formed a team whose primary objective is to test future Exchange and Outlook functionality with the touch-screen handset.

Source: Apple

iPhone and the Enterprise is a Natural

I could sit here and talk about how I left my Blackberry for the iPhone, but then again, I am a rapid-fire device guy that tries to drive most, if not all, of them when they come out. Better to look at the data I say -- a recent survey of enterprise smartphone users in the U.K. says the iPhone beats the competition hands down when it comes to user-satisfaction rates.

Per the survey done by ChangeWave Research, roughly 59% of iPhone-owning business customers said they are "very satisfied" with the device. By comparison, Research In Motion's (RIMM - commentary - Cramer's Take) BlackBerry, which is the clear market-share leader in the enterprise space, ranked second in the ChangeWave survey, with 47% of those surveyed being "very satisfied" with the device. Nokia (NOK - commentary - Cramer's Take) came in third with 40%, followed by Samsung at 30%, Motorola (MOT - commentary - Cramer's Take) at 25% and Palm (PALM - commentary - Cramer's Take) with 10%.

---

At the time of publication, Versace was long Apple, although positions may change at any time.

Chris Versace joined Agile Equity in 2006 and leads the Washington D.C. office where he oversees Agile Capital Management and serves as a sub adviser for other asset managers. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Versace appreciates your feedback; click here to send him an email.