As the iPhone Turns 10, CEOs Assess Its Effect on Business

On June 29, the iPhone turns 10 years old, and there’s no question that it has proved to be one of the most impactful devices on consumers ever. The numbers alone prove its popularity; in Q4 2016, Apple sold 78 million iPhones, up 5 percent from a year earlier. The math says Apple sells roughly 400 iPhones a minute, and the company sold its 1 billionth iPhone unit last fall. There is no denying that Apple’s release of the iPhone in 2007 and its release of the iPad in 2010 have changed mobile computing permanently. What truly separates the iPhone from competing devices is how it has transcended the consumer market and made its impact on B2B business as well. In this eWEEK slide show, six business leaders offer their perspectives on how the iPhone has made an impact on businesses.

“The iPhone opened the floodgates for the development of millions of mobile apps used by billions of people every day. Every app requires testing to make sure it works on the various devices available around the world. Due in part to the popularity of the iPhone, testing for mobile applications is poised to reach a market value of almost $7 billion by 2026, up from just over $1 billion in 2015. Mobile app quality is critical to businesses today when the competition is only a few taps away. Fast, reliable testing across a variety of mobile operating systems and devices is key to achieving a high-quality user experience.”

“The introduction of the iPhone opened up the BYOD floodgates. While it has been a boon for employees to have their choice of device, it has also opened up Pandora’s box for IT, which must now manage and secure an ever-growing list of diverse devices. As a result, endpoint management has increasingly become a critical component for enterprises to ensure the accessibility and safety of corporate information across highly distributed workforces.”

“Yes the iPhone has transformed business in terms of what it is used for in the workplace, but more importantly it has initiated larger movements in the enterprise. These include: 1) adoption of Apple in the enterprise (as iPhone replaced BlackBerry and iPad and Mac have become natural extensions); 2) The return of apps to native devices (rather than standard web browser interfaces); 3) The consumerization of IT, as the avalanche of demand for iPhone in the consumer space brought it into business to replace BlackBerry. Further, if it weren’t for the iPhone, the iPad would have never existed, sparking the adoption of tablet computers in the workplace and the plethora of tablets from other manufacturers.”

“With the iPhone came the App Store, which has grown into an ecosystem of more than 2 million apps designed for palm-sized screens, short attention spans and fast-changing user behaviors. Today apps are a way of life. The explosion of the app economy has created fierce competition among app developers, driving them to continuously find new ways and build new tools to better learn about their users and create personalized experiences for them. The iPhone and app economy have raised the bar for digital marketers everywhere.”

“Since iPhone’s introduction, it has driven consumer-quality application experiences into the enterprise, where the richness of the user interface in one’s consumer world has led to the same demand for richness of features, ease-of-use and a great user experience for B2B and internal applications. This demand has contributed to the rapid growth of web technology, enabling organizations to create an application once and deliver a great user experience across mobile phones, tablets and desktops. And like the iPhone, web applications are becoming increasingly sophisticated as consumers crave more data at their fingertips at all times. This has led organizations to add sophisticated data analytics and data visualizations (such as D3) to their web apps.”

“The iPhone inspired a new wave of workplace connectivity and productivity. While iPhones and other mobile devices have led to the increased implementation of BYOD programs in the workplace, they’re also developing mobile applications for workers throughout the organization and extended enterprise. These apps are leading organizations to new revenue or service delivery opportunities by allowing businesses to enable a broader range of workers, including BYOD users, contracted workers, dealers and others. This would not be possible if it weren’t for mobile devices such as the iPhone becoming so engrained in consumers’ everyday lives and raising the expectations that workers have for enterprise tools.”