i-mate phones may stir up enterprise mobile
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A vendor based in Dubai pounced on the enterprise mobility market Tuesday evening with a set of Windows Mobile 6 phones that come with built-in security and management software and will be sold independent of carriers.The company, i-mate, unveiled its Ultimate series of four GSM phones at Showstoppers, a product showcase held alongside the CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment show happening this week in San Francisco. They will start hitting the market worldwide in the middle of next month.The devices all are about the size of a typical smartphone, run Microsoft&#39;s Windows Mobile 6 operating system, and come with the Office Mobile suite. Two have touchscreens, and two have QWERTY keyboards, one of them using a &quot;slider&quot; design with a larger keyboard and a screen that can be viewed horizontally. They are aimed at markets ranging from small business to larger midsize enterprises.One thing that sets i-mate apart is its business model: It will sell the phones in the U.S. through resellers and retail channels, bypassing mobile operators and the subsidies they typically offer. The i-mate phones will range in price from about $600 to $800, said Nicole Buchanan, vice president of sales and marketing (Americas) at i-mate. The company isn&#39;t averse to carrier distribution if it can make a deal: It will sell devices through Telstra in Australia, Buchanan said.Although carriers dominate the U.S. handset business, a few device makers are starting to take matters into their own hands. Nokia sells phones through its own retail stores and makes some high-end devices available through alternative distributors like Brightpoint, which i-mate will also use. The trend allows businesses to make their handset choices without worrying about what carrier to use or how long the mobile operator will continue offering the device they want.The traditional mobile handset business, in which carriers dictate the timing of handset and service rollouts based on their own business plans, doesn&#39;t match up with typically long enterprise planning cycles, IDC analyst Shiv Bakhshi said Monday at the show. Enterprises often can&#39;t find out what phones will be available when they carry out their mobile strategies or whether their current phone models will still be available in the future. Although hardware makers are starting to gain some autonomy, with the prominent example of Apple and its iPhone, they have a long way to go, Bakhshi said.The i-mate phones come with built-in software for securing and managing the devices. The Secure i-Q software lets users or IT support people lock down a lost or stolen device or wipe the data from it over the air. They can then configure a replacement device with all the appropriate applications over the air, Buchanan said. Custom i-Q allows for customization of each device with applications, e-mail settings, and features over the air.i-mate&#39;s only previous product was a digital picture frame with Wi-Fi. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange. It developed the i-Q software and designed the Ultimate phones, which are built by contract manufacturers. All the devices use an XScale PXA 520MHz processor and have storage expandable to 2GB. They come with features typical of high-end phones, including Bluetooth and cameras. Three of the models have a front-facing camera that can be used for videoconferencing, according to i-mate. One feature that makes the devices stand out is XGA output, which lets a user plug the handset into a full-size display or projector.The Ultimate 6150 and 8150 touch-screen phones and 8502 QWERTY phone are due to ship worldwide in mid-November. The 9502 slider phone will ship around the end of the year, i-mate said.
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(InfoWorld) - Industry experts maintain that many business applications vendors are still struggling to successfully port their tools to mobile handsets. But some software makers claim that by partnering with wireless specialists to develop their systems, they are selling more licenses to end-users today. While larger business applications companies, including SAP and Salesforce.com, have gone the route of internally developing mobile versions of their existing products, others, such as enterprise software vendors NetSuite and SugarCRM, are finding it makes more sense to partner with third-party wireless applications providers. In addition to the cost savings and reduced time to market that working with such partners allows -- versus architecting their own wireless applications or acquiring firms that can do so, as in the case of Salesforce.com -- advocates of the emerging middleware model for mobile business applications claim the approach results in far more mature wireless services for customers. "We originally approached wireless development internally ourselves, and we've developed a lightweight client that can work in almost any browser. But we found that by enlisting a partner that is focused completely on mobile applications we could create something much more compelling," said John Roberts, chief executive of SugarCRM, in Cupertino, Calf. "Mobilizing a product seems like a straightforward process, but the truth is that understanding the way that a user navigates the handheld application, what needs to be in there and what is most useful, involves a lot more work than taking a traditional application and pushing it to a different form factor," Roberts said. To get its business applications onto smaller screens faster and more effectively, SugarCRM enlisted the help of iEnterprises, a Murray Hill, N.J.-based provider of wireless tools that has long specialized in pushing CRM systems to wireless devices. The company currently offers handheld iterations of CRM products made by IBM's Lotus division, SugarCRM, NetSuite, and Microsoft, along with its own applications. At the core of iEnterprises' strategy is its own Mobile CRM software module, which it also sells as a stand-alone product. Having spent years developing the right mix of features and formats for pushing business applications such as sales force automation (SFA) tools to mobile devices, the company claims it is accelerating the pace with which its partners can offer wireless applications to their customers. "Everyone in business software is trying to build a mobile module, but many vendors are finding creating that is harder than they thought, and that using something like our module makes a lot more sense," said Phil Sheehy vice president of wireless solutions at iEnterprises. "Because of the form factor of today's devices, the limited memory and bandwidth constraints of the network, it's very important and challenging to get the right mix of features into the applications themselves," Sheehy said. "The tools have to have enough utility to be useful, but the temptation for many is to try and cram too much into the program, which has resulted in a lot of products that end-users have found too cumbersome or awkward." Industry analysts continue to criticize the functionality of many mobile business applications for exactly those reasons. "It's going to take years for enterprise applications to become mobile because these were largely designed for the PC within certain parameters, which doesn't port well to the handheld," said Maribel Lopez, analyst with Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research. "Everybody wants mobile business applications but there's still a lot of massaging of the applications themselves that needs to happen before more customers will be ready to increase investment." Even those companies building the mobile devices agree that the middleware model for mobile business applications seems to make a lot of sense. Among the device companies iEnterprises is partnered with is Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry handhelds that have become arguably the most popular wireless business device in North America. "Companies like this that serve in the middleware role are bringing a lot of value to the market by allowing existing CRM companies and their customers to tap into mobility and pull in data from back-end systems," said Tyler Lessard, director of independent software vendor (ISV) alliances at RIM. "These companies have already spent a lot of time focused on making sure that CRM or other business applications work on a BlackBerry in the same way that popular mobile applications such as e-mail do," he said. "The larger applications vendors tend to offer a Web-based interface that can be used on the mobile device, but many customers are already looking for something richer that can store data locally; these customers are looking to middleware vendors to help." The middleware model is becoming so pervasive that some applications vendors have moved to acquire providers of the technologies, including Salesforce.com, which had previously worked with iEnterprises before buying Sendia, a provider of similar mobile products, for $15 million in April 2007. In addition to building wireless versions of its own hosted SFA tools, Salesforce.com has also committed to using Sendia's technologies to build mobile iterations of all the custom applications built by its partners under its AppExchange development program. Customers agree that the middleware-bred mobile systems are getting the job done well. Alan Tamny, national account manager for retail loss prevention specialists Checkpoint Systems, said that his company has been using iEnterprises' Lotus Notes CRM tools, along several other applications developed by the company, for several years with impressive results. Part of the lure of the applications is that they have been specifically tailored to work on the BlackBerry devices that Checkpoint has passed out to its workers, the executive said. "The ultimate endorsement is how well the applications get adopted by salespeople out in the field, as these types of workers won't use something like this unless they really see a benefit. The response has been really strong as these systems have worked so well," Tamny said. "We had to have something that was supported on BlackBerry -- that was probably the biggest driver of going with iEnterprises. But the information fits on the small screen really well and the synchronization with back-end systems works great, which is our biggest concern," he said. "Now our salespeople can truly have constant connectivity, which is a huge advantage in terms of them not having to replicate information into multiple address books and keeping data up-to-date without needing to sit down at a PC." Officials with Vettro, another mobile applications middleware player, said that many Fortune 1000 customers are approaching the firm in hopes of getting more advanced handheld technologies into workers' hands. Rather than building complete wireless applications or versions of other vendors' products, such as iEnterprises, the New York-based company sells its Vettro 360 platform directly to customers, who use it to create their own mobile applications, including field force automation programs. Large applications vendors and end-user firms may someday have the ability to build and support their own mobile applications, but company officials contend that there will likely always be a demand for middleware specialists that can help build and deliver the systems. "There's room for a lot of different types of players. It would be too simplistic to ever consider that one type of mobile applications provider or one model will take over. It really comes down to how much you're trying to do, and how core your mobile strategy is," said JiYoung Kim, vice president of marketing at Vettro. "The market is already evolving quickly," Kim said. "We started out building applications that largely shielded our customers from the complexity of mobility, but things have already begun to move more into customization and tailoring applications to whatever type of interface a customer needs to best configure their mobile devices for end-users."
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Microsoft is considering opening up Mobile Device Manager to support devices that don't run the Windows Mobile operating system.
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The choice between a bracing bank holiday walk or an afternoon in front of the television will soon be a thing of the past. Mobile phone owners are being targeted by a company that has developed technology
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By Izwan Ismail  FANCY having a phone that can switch between a Wi-Fi network and a GSM (global system for mobile communications) line? Alcatel- Lucent already has the solution to allow this new concept of enterprise communication to take place.
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Good Mobile Messaging 5 adds custom options and shortcuts for enterprise use.
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While many industry and internet specialists agree that a genuine convergence between technology and content for mobile has been achieved, many questions still remain on what exactly are the opportunities for local merchants and search marketers. Is now the time for search marketers to enter mobile and bring their clients with them?
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Japan&#39;s biggest mobile telecom carrier gave its strongest support yet to&#160;Google&#39;s Android platform&#160;on Thursday when it said it is considering a cell phone based on the technology.&quot;We are starting discussions to offer handsets that will have the Android operating system,&quot; said Takeshi Natsuno, managing director of the multimedia services department at NTT DoCoMo.The talks include getting support for I-mode, DoCoMo&#39;s hit mobile Internet service, on the Android platform. Nearly 48 million of DoCoMo&#39;s 53 million customers subscribe to I-mode, so having it on Android will be key to the Google platform&#39;s success in Japan.Android is a Linux-based platform for cell phones that will combine open-source components and include an operating system, middleware stack, customizable user interface and applications.NTT DoCoMo is one of the founding members of the Open Handset Alliance, the group developing Android. Until Thursday hadn&#39;t disclosed what it hoped to gain from its participation in the group, which includes about 40 companies including some of the biggest names in the cell phone industry.&quot;When I look at the prototype, the Android-based handset works really well even on some of the cheaper handset designs,&quot; said Natsuno.Natsuno didn&#39;t provide any specifics about when such a handset might be available. When the Open Handset Alliance was launched last year Google said that it expected the first phones running the software to appear in late 2008.Despite its support for Android, NTT DoCoMo is also working with companies developing rival platforms. It has an alliance with Access, a Japanese software company with which is has deep ties, on the Access Linux Platform (ALP). DoCoMo is working on a &quot;carrier pack,&quot; a set of unique products and services, that can run on ALP, which is intended to be a common Linux platform for cell phones.Natsuno&#39;s comments came at a Tokyo news conference held to detail a partnership between the carrier and Google.The alliance will see Google products and applications added to DoCoMo handsets. These will include the addition of a Google search box on the main I-mode menu page from which users will access mobile and PC Web sites. Google Ads will appear alongside search results. The two companies said they are also planning to bring more Google services, such as Google Maps, to handsets and build in support for Flash video so that users can access and stream content from YouTube.Google will appear as the default start page on mobile phones that feature browsers for the full Internet.The deal is Google&#39;s second in the mobile space in Japan. It already has a deal with second-ranked carrier &quot;au&quot; to which it provides search and advertising services. Number three carrier Softbank Mobile has a link with Yahoo Japan, the portal in which its parent company, Softbank, is the biggest shareholder.&#160;
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(Source: Palm) The experience of a mobile enterprise solution - both for Information Technology (IT) professionals and end users - is critical to its effectiveness and adoption. This paper elaborates on the aspects that make up the end-to-end experience and enumerates the business benefi ts of choosing a solution that delivers a positive experience.
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The task of securing smart phones and other mobile devices can be a thorn in the side of IT managers. Aventail's Connect Mobile can solve those problems.
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Reaping the benefits as buyers turn to smart phones
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Microsoft&#39;s new Mobile Device Manager faces a shortcoming because it is exclusive to Windows Mobile devices, but that might change, an executive said on Tuesday.Scott Horn, general manager at Microsoft&#39;s mobile and embedded device group, left the door open to potential future support for non-Windows Mobile devices.&quot;Today, we have nothing to announce,&quot; he said. &quot;But we&#39;re looking at it, we&#39;re thinking about it. Who knows what the future brings?&quot; Horn spoke during a press lunch at the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.He mentioned that Microsoft has in the past licensed ActiveSync as a way to extend services to non-Microsoft devices.Microsoft introduced System Center Mobile Device Manager&#160;at the conference. The software lets IT administrators manage and secure Windows Mobile phones. Unlike some other management products on the market, including Nokia&#39;s Intellisync, it is compatible only with phones running the Windows Mobile operating system.AT&amp;T, which is supporting Mobile Device Manager, said there is inertia among IT administrators. IT managers are worried about security and management issues, said Mike Woodward, vice business marketing for AT&amp;T. He thinks that the software as well as the services from a new company,&#160;Enterprise Mobile, will spur more enterprise use of mobile phones. Woodward could not offer specifics about how it will support Mobile Device Manager or how exactly it will work with Enterprise Mobile.For now, the new software and the services from Enterprise Mobile, which help enterprises deploy and manage mobile phones, are designed for large businesses. Mobile Device Manager, expected to come out next year, could support as many as 5,000 users. Enterprise Mobile doesn&#39;t expect to begin thinking about serving smaller businesses for another 12 to 18 months because it will be focused on making sure it knows what large enterprises need, said Steve Moore, president of Enterprise Mobile.
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Etelos has made its CRM platform available to iPhone users via the devices Safari Web browser.
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InfoWorld - Push e-mail provider Visto says it will be able to send enterprise e-mail to iPhones starting later this year.
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NTT DoCoMo says: &quot;Symbian - yes, mobile Linux - yes, Microsoft - BIG NO&quot;. Well, previously NTT DoCoMo was very promoting wireless Java in its handsets and J2EE Java in its servers (to power i-mode services
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You've heard it all before. The CEO buys an iPhone, falls in love, and leans on IT to shift its stack of tasks to make work-enabling his new gadget IT Priority No. 1.But as IT departments scramble to sync e-mail and slap together Web apps for Safari-based iPhone access, the question remains: Can Apple's ear-candy crush object draft off this executive effect to true enterprise mobile legitimacy, or are execs' iPhone fetishes jeopardizing the integrity of their company's mobile strategy?[ For an in-depth review of the iPhone, see "iPhone: The $1,975 iPod" ]Here we examine the iPhone ecosystem's evolving backdoor bid for enterprise, one that pits security concerns, vendor intentions, and gadget affinities against caution-minded enterprise IT.Executive inroads to the enterprise A midsize company providing inventory supply services to schools, government facilities, and other institutions across the United States was perfectly happy with its mobile Palm-based inventory software until the CEO and other high-level execs purchased their own iPhones.?Suddenly, they were saying, ?Hey, this is really nice,? and reevaluating their whole handheld strategy,? says Ben Gottlieb, president of Stand Alone, which provides business inventory software and consulting services to the aforementioned inventory supplier. ?Then came the questions about where the Palm OS was headed and whether their inventory application could be iPhone-enabled.?Mark Russell, vice president of sales and marketing at U-Line, a Milwaukee-based manufacturer of under-counter icemakers and refrigerators, had an iPhone for fun and a Nokia E70 for work until he accidentally crushed the Nokia device in his mother-in-law?s recliner. Instead of getting a new E70, he asked IT to sync his iPhone with the corporate Exchange server.?Our IT guy was nervous at first, but when Visto added iPhone capability to its Visto Enterprise Server, he gave it a try,? Russell says, referring to the mobile messaging service provider, Visto. U-Line was already using Visto to sync its smartphones with Exchange.Russell is perfectly happy with his business iPhone and has no intention of repurchasing the Nokia or any other device. And according to Daniel Koshute, U-Line systems administrator, several other employees are ready to make the switch as well.The above examples are not unique. Like the PDAs, USB storage devices, and Wi-Fi devices that came before it, the iPhone is pushing its way through the side door of today's enterprises, thanks to a sexy interface, a superior mobile browser, and executive pressure.?Apple has definitely achieved its goal of making you smile every time you press a keystroke,? says Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner.And it's precisely that smile that has enterprise IT nervous. After all, Apple has very openly targeted the iPhone as a consumer device, doing little to enable it with the security, management, and other features the typical enterprise IT department demands from any mobile platform it supports. Not to mention that Apple?s enterprise sales and support -- or lack thereof -- have not exactly endeared the company to the enterprise in the past. Yet analysts and vendors of smartphone software report that enterprise demand for the iPhone is rising.?When the iPhone came out, we had a surge of enterprise IT customers asking when we would support it,? says Senthil Krishnapillai, director of product management for Sybase iAnywhere, which will soon offer an iPhone enterprise e-mail syncing solution. ?They told us that management was asking for it.??We?re definitely seeing enterprise interest in the iPhone, mostly driven by executives and rogue users, rather than IT,? says Matt Parks, director of product management at Visto, which recently introduced iPhone/Exchange/Domino syncing for its Visto Mobile Enterprise server.IT in the crosshairs Perhaps most disturbing to IT is the security quandary it faces in supporting the iPhone.?An enterprise must ensure that whatever device comes into the environment doesn?t breach any of the security policies it has in place,? Dulaney says. ?Otherwise, they have two choices: Be a hypocrite, or lower their overall investment in security because one breach, no matter how small, is a breach after all.?Although it does come with VPN capability, the iPhone?s built-in security just doesn?t measure up to those of its more enterprise-focused BlackBerry and Windows Mobile competitors.?Most enterprises cite two must-have security features for any supported mobile device: the ability to force the user to create a complex power-on password, and the ability to wipe out the data on the device remotely if it?s lost,? Dulaney says. ?In order to do that, you need the right hooks in the firmware, which Apple doesn?t provide.?And because they aren?t yet in the firmware, software vendors that support the iPhone, including Visto and Sybase, can?t offer those capabilities.Other security, usability, and management issues are also conspiring to ensure that the iPhone will not dominate the enterprise any time soon.As opposed to the BlackBerry, the iPhone doesn?t provide any inherent firewall or data encryption. Now holding up to 16GB, the iPhone's storage capacity gives IT jitters because it can be used to steal large amounts of data from an unprotected PC. Moreover, the iPhone comes with a built-in camera, which many IT departments do not allow as a matter of policy.?One of the things that really scares me, particularly with government agencies, is that Apple?s core iPhone framework allows it to take pictures or video and record sound without any flashing light or other indicator that anything is happening,? says Jonathan Zdziarski, research scientist for a security vendor and author of iPhone Open Application Development, which explains how to develop iPhone applications using Objective-C and an open source, community-developed iPhone toolkit.?This lets Joe Hacker create software that can secretly eavesdrop on conversations and record video, then send the audio or video file anywhere over the network,? Zdziarski says.Apple could prevent such hacks by requiring the user to visually authenticate an application's ability to access the camera or microphone much like Leopard does for applications that want to listen for incoming connections, Zdziarski adds.Others have taken issue with the fact that the iPhone is based on the OS X operating system and Safari Web browser, both of which have been around long enough for hackers to know how to exploit. Yet, at the same time, it?s a closed system, at least until Apple releases a native SDK in late February or early March, so security software vendors are unable to provide protection software for it.Where?s the road map? Even when Apple?s SDK comes out, nobody knows whether it will provide the kernel and hardware hooks that security vendors demand. And that brings up another sticking point that enterprises have with Apple: the lack of a publicized road map.Enterprise IT depends on the technology road maps published by established enterprise vendors such as Intel, Microsoft, IBM, and HP to plan and budget for hardware and software upgrades. Apple?s road maps are a closely held secret.?Since Apple is primarily a consumer company, they won?t tell you anything until the day of release,? Gartner's Dulaney says.In the meantime, according to Zdziarski, some prospective iPhone software vendors and enterprise developers have used the Open Source SDK to get their feet wet. Others, such as NetSuite and Salesforce.com, are taking advantage of AJAX for the Safari browser, but this doesn?t provide the flexibility and access to the OS that a native SDK would provide.Another sticking point: Apple?s enterprise sales and support staff are minimal, rumored to be in the teens, although Apple would not divulge this information, and Apple has never demonstrated a real commitment to the enterprise, nor does it have any developed enterprise sales channel.?Apple needs to develop key enterprise partners to help them get past executive appeal and get traction on the IT side, and they simply haven?t done it,? says Sean Ryan, research analyst for mobile enterprise solutions at IDC.As for management, Apple offers nothing even remotely similar to the centralized device management capabilities offered by RIM or Microsoft. There are no tools for monitoring mobile assets or enforcing corporate software policies, and the iPhone?s reliance on iTunes for activation and software updates just doesn?t sit well with IT, nor does the need to send the iPhone back to Apple for a battery change.Waiting for the SDK Finally, until the iPhone SDK allows client software installation on the device, there are several outstanding usability issues. Even with existing corporate e-mail solutions, the iPhone doesn?t offer true push e-mail, but rather syncs with the server once every 15 minutes, an eternity for true e-mail addicts. It also offers no native calendar and contact syncing abilities, so users might miss rescheduled meetings.Meanwhile, enterprise e-mail sync vendors such as Visto, Sybase, and IBM have implemented work-arounds to cope with the iPhone's drawbacks. Because the phone provides no data encryption, IBM plans to provide all its Domino access using Safari, with absolutely no e-mail storage on the iPhone itself, according to Kevin Cavanaugh, vice president of Notes and Domino at IBM. Visto and Sybase take advantage of the iPhone e-mail client, but both provide tight control over attachment-download policies. Sybase?s iAnywhere can remove mail data from a lost or stolen iPhone, but not until the next time it syncs with the server.These vendors and others are waiting anxiously for the SDK, after which a number of security and other iPhone enhancements are expected to be offered by third parties, depending on the depth of access provided by the SDK. Meanwhile, AT&amp;T has begun quietly offering business service plans for the iPhone, starting at $45 per month, although with no notable business-focused extras, such as corporate e-mail syncing, as of yet.Still, the iPhone has a long way to go before moving beyond an executive luxury to becoming a true enterprise player. Much of the momentum depends on Apple?s cooperation and an enterprise commitment it has not demonstrated in the past.?Apple is doing just fine with consumers and businesspeople who purchase the iPhone with their own money,? Dulaney says. ?Those two groups make up 85 percent of the 2.5 billion phones out there. What real incentive do they have to screw with the enterprise??Related articles Review: Supersmart phones for extreme mobility We pick seven serious business phones with all the bells and whistles, plus the power and flexibility that real mobile professionals need Review: iPhone: The $1,975 iPod Apple's and AT&amp;T's high-price gadget is a heartbreaking triumph of greed over genius Video: Two Geeks and an iPhone: Part 1 What we use and why Video: Two Geeks and an iPhone: Part 2 Tips and tricks for e-mail, safari, and more Video: Two Geeks and an iPhone: Part 3 How to add third-party apps to your iPhone Thoughts on the iPhone/iPod touch SDK Enterprise comes to iPhone 15 things Apple should fix in iPhone 2.0
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Mobile operators are starting to wake up to the potential of giving their customers access to the net.