At a recent Apple March 6 Event, Steve Jobs and some of his team outlined both the iPhone Enterprise Beta Program and iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK). While the long awaited SDK has been eagerly devoured by developers across the industry, I was keenly watching the Enterprise Roadmap.

In a nutshell, this allows the iPhone to connect to a Microsoft Exchange Server using ActiveSync. Thus, the end-user can receive “pushed” e-mail, calendar events, and contacts. This one area signals a storm that is long overdue in the world of technology, the introduction of a truly disruptive technology such as the iPhone & iPod Touch.

For a long time, Microsoft has catered to the goliath of enterprise business, giving this audience just enough of what they needed to hook them into an ever growing web of Microsoft products. They quickly understood that businesses wanted integration across their networks, to bring a common user interface (UI) to everyone. Why spend a lot of time and money on integrating software platforms when you have at least a promise of integration with a suite of solutions by one provider.

Microsoft leveraged their dominance in the desktop market to grow into the office suite, back office products, and even the mobile market.

Apple on the other hand had floundered without Steve Jobs at the helm, and has been playing catch-up for quite some time upon his return. However, by “the 4th quarter of 2007, the iPhone surged to a 28% share of the US converged device market…” (TechCrunch). With the veritable flop of Vista (to date), the surge of adoption of the iPhone and iPod products, and the launch of the iPhone Roadmap Apple stands poised to ride a cresting wave of unfounded end-user adoption…

Even though many people are making a big deal out of the iPhone, there are some other key things that hold true adoption of the Apple offerings back, and those are 3rd party application integration. Sure you can run Office 2008 on a Mac, but does it really work? Does it really play as well with the OS as it might on Vista?

Enter virtualization technologies… and I’m not just talking about Bootcamp or parallel here people; there are revolutionary new offerings whereby applications themselves can be pushed to the desktop for an extremely rich user experience while allowing IT an easier path to management.

And let’s not forget SaaS (Software as a Service). The ability to have an almost desktop-like experience is quickly replacing the “old” model of licensing and extending the enterprise across work and home computers securely. IT staffs are scrambling to handle more diverse fleets of hardware and software every day, and the resurgence of centralization (e.g. virtualization and thin/web clients) is gaining some tremendous ground and attention.

All these things play to Apple’s advantage, as the underdog. However, these are just as easily capitalized on by others as well. So what is the catalyst that will tip Apple over the edge to gain true marketshare? Giving customers what they want how they want it… see Starbucks!

I’m going on record! I predict that IF apple continues on its iPhone Roadmap, continues to develop disruptive technologies (as they have proven they can do), and can keep giving customers what they need and want, in 5 years Apple will have between 25% - 45% marketshare in the business desktop/notebook space.

 Yes, Apple can take over the enterprise! Next, can Apple unseat RIM BlackBerry?

My birthday is coming up this week, and my loving and caring wife actually decided to purchase me a real want, an Apple Touch! This little device wasn’t cheap in my opinion, and was definitely classified as a want - NOT a need… Now, many of you have been exposed to either the iPhone or Touch (and certainly have your opinions), but it really got me thinking about gauging success in terms of whether you meet the needs requirement document - or whether you step past that and also meet the wants that often get dropped off the list.

 I have loved my various iPods over the years, and credit Apple (much like all pundits) with a truly creative and unique offering to the market - a game changing, paradigm shift in the market. When they released the iPhone, not only did they do a superior marketing job (as Apple almost always does), but launched a truly revolutionary OS platform that finally does bring an intuitive interface with most of the things I want and need in an electronic device.

Many of you probably suffer from the same blurring of home and work life that I do (according to many surveys), and a device that allows me to keep “my life” together (both personal and professional) is truly wonderful. I mean I’ve been using smart devices for years, both Palm and Windows Mobile - and recently RIM BlackBerry. All seem to lack something, but I can now see that the only thing Apple is really lacking for a blockbuster smartdevice is simply more integrations - a trend that has been ramping up for some time with EDI, etc. - but it has really taken off with the advent of what most people commonly refer to as Web 2.0…

 According to a February 2008 article on TechCrunch, the iPhone is second only to RIM in the US smartphone market.

Figures released from research firm Canalys show that Apple’s iPhone in now second only to RIM (Blackberry) in the US smartphone market.

In the 4th quarter of 2007, the iPhone surged to a 28% share of the US converged device market behind RIM’s 41%, but ahead of 3rd third placed Palm on 9%. The iPhone was ahead of all Windows Mobile device vendors combined with a market share of 21%.

Despite its still limited official availability, Apple moved into 3rd place globally, behind Nokia (52.9%) and RIM (11.4%). Apple’s 6.5% global smart phone market share put it 19,000 units ahead of the struggling Motorola.

So, it’s an interesting case study in  the simple fact that when you really meet the needs AND wants of your customers (end-users for all you IT pogues out there), it becomes a game changer… it’s ultimately the greatest metric for true success, as indicated by these staggering numbers. Now, all Apple has to do is stave off the on-slaught of me-to companies that is bound to come (according to their Q1-08 10T). That just goes to show you success won’t allow you to stand still, you always have to adapt to the ever-changing marketplace.

 Well, I’m off to enjoy my new Touch… It really was the one of the best gifts I have received in a long time…