Microsoft Calls iPhone “Irrelevant”
Apr 20th, 2007 | By James Lewin | Category: Digital Music, iPods & Portable Media Players 
Apple’s soon-to-be-launched iPhone will be irrelevant to business users because it is a “closed device” and does not support Microsoft Office, according to a senior executive at Microsoft.
“It’s a great music phone, and I’m sure it will be fantastic and have an interesting user interface,” Microsoft’s Asia-Pacific head of smartphone strategy Chris Sorenson told press during a recent visit to Australia.
“However, it’s a closed device that you cannot install applications on, and there’s no support for Office documents. If you’re an enterprise and want to roll out line of business applications, it’s just not an option. Even using it as a heavy messaging device will be a challenge,” the executive added.
One hundred and forty phone models already run Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system. Sorenson believes that user familiarity with the Windows Mobile interface and the ease with which companies can buy and develop applications for the platform will help keep the iPhone out of the lucrative corporate market.
When contacted, an Apple Australia spokesperson said: “I am not interested in commenting”.
Sort of like Macs are irrelevant?
Just amazing. A million people are lined up to buy one of these phones and Microsoft is proclaiming it a failure because it won’t run their software? They really do think they rule the world.
Well, it really isn’t aimed at corporate users like the Blackberry. It is aimed more at upscale consumers. Its popularity (or lack of) will determine its fate in the corporate world. If they sell millions of these the trickle down effect will work on the iPhone much like it has on the Mac. It will seep into pockets of the corporate world slowly but surely. This is just version 1.0 after all.
It was never meant for the corporate market; the whole emphasis on it has been the music/internet/video/games/data side.