Deploying the iPhone 3G for business – Macworld- E-Business

Once activated, an iPhone can be configured and used without iTunes, allowing users access to many of the iPhone?s data features such as Web browsing, e-mail and other Exchange features ?” including calendars and the Global Address List ?” and applications. It also helps a company stop users from associating their phones with an Apple ID and iTunes Store account, making it harder for them to make purchases through the App Store for iPhone or the iTunes Wi-Fi Store. These could include requiring a passcode to access the phone, configuration of Exchange or IMAP/POP e-mail accounts, VPN configuration (for PPTP, L2TP and IPSec/Cisco VPNs), some configuration for access to Wi-Fi networks and the installation of certificates on the phone. IPhone profiles are XML property list files that can be generated with either a Mac OS X application ?” the iPhone Configuration Utility?”or a Web-based tool that can be installed on either a Mac or a Windows PC (examples of both are shown below). When using OS X?s iPhone Configuration Utility, a list of available profiles (as well as their creation date) can be viewed and edited by selecting Configuration Profiles in the sidebar. Although these features are useful as an option for maintaining information about iPhones in your environment, particularly if they were centrally activated while the iPhone Configuration Utility was running, or for troubleshooting, their primary use revolves around in-house applications, which I?ll cover in part 3 of this series. read more

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