[Macpartners] iPhone Evaluation Results and Recommendation for the MIT Community

[Andrew Yu]

Greetings!


In collaboration with other departments at MIT, IS&T formed an iPhone 
Evaluation Team to test various aspects of the iPhone within MIT's 
infrastructure. The test result is available from the iPhone Evaluation 
Project Notebook page (http://mit.edu/swrt/releases/iphone-eval/)


Recommendation

IS&T recommends that mobile device users should be aware of the issues 
mentioned in this report and if considering to purchase the iPhone, please 
wait for the next version of the iPhone with expected improvements.  We also 
remind the community that a significant portion of the cost of the iPhone 
covers the cost of the iPod functions.  It is not the intent of IS&T to 
determine for any department whether this is a legitimate business expense 
or not but in line with our goal to be fiscally responsible, we feel it is 
important for the community to understand what's included in the cost when 
making a decision on which mobile device to purchase.

We expect Apple to address some of the issues mentioned in this report over 
the next few months. These improvements and bug fixes may be available to 
current users via software update. However, some features may require the 
users to purchase new equipment (e.g. 3G network capability).

Background on the project


The goal of the project was to investigate the viability of the Apple iPhone 
within the MIT environment and to share the findings with the community. The 
evaluation included email, calendar, contacts, certificates, web browsing, 
and other features that are essential to MIT mobile device users. The 
project also investigated ways to make the iPhone work with these features 
and document the findings.

The iPhone contains a number of breakthrough technologies that will interest 
many users at MIT. It includes a number of revolutionary features that might 
benefit MIT mobile device users. These include the "full" web browsing 
capability, robust email client, mult-touch user interface, etc. (for more 
information on Apple's iPhone, please visit http://www.apple.com/iphone)

However, as with any first-generation products, there are a number of things 
that need to be improved for broader adoption. Since the initial release, 
Apple has been releasing software updates to address bugs and security 
issues. Apple also recently made additional changes that include a 30% price 
drop, elimination of the 4GB iPhone from its product line as well as the 
introduction of iPod Touch (without cellular data and voice capability) that 
contain many features found in the iPhone.

Anyone at MIT interested in purchasing the iPhone should be aware of 
potential issues listed in this report.

Full Report

The full report is available from the iPhone Evaluation Project Notebook 
page found in the URL below:

http://mit.edu/swrt/releases/iphone-eval/

Next Steps

IS&T will initiate an iPhone Release project to provide documentation and 
limited support for the following:

  a.. Email Configuration
  b.. Wi-Fi Connection within MIT
  c.. iTunes (set up and initial synchronization)
  d.. Safari
In the meanwhile, those seeking assistance can utilize Mobile Devices Wiki 
(https://wikis.mit.edu/confluence/display/MobileDevices/) and join the 
Mobile Partners User Group 
(http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/mobilepartners) for peer support.


_______________________________
Andrew Yu
Mobile Devices Platform Coordinator
Information Services & Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Phone: 617-324-8985
Email: andrewyu at mit.edu
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