The iPhone continues to be a great consumer device with enterprise capabilities. From a business productivity perspective the key improvements in iOS 5 are related to Exchange integration:
- Improved mail functionality including rich text support, flagging and search. Mails can now be managed (moved and deleted) in offline mode. The recent mail message limit are increased from 200 to 1.000.
- Improved calendar functionality, including a week calendar views and improved ease-of-use.
- Support for Tasks (called ‘Reminders’ in the Apple universe)
- Update (September 7th): The browser can display content in a device-friendly format:
Other relevant features in iOS 5:
- Most analytics agree that the key feature of iOS 5 is iCloud allowing users to backup, store and restore data in a repository always available. iCloud is a great invention to the user, but could be a potential security nightmare to the organization; With iOS 5 the device data – in particular documents – can easily be stored in the iCloud controlled by Apple. iOS may include feature to control the iCloud functionality through Afaria and MobileIron, but the details are yet unknown.
- iTunes on a pc is no longer required to activate devices. This will eliminate the need for iTunes on each user’s PC and potentially eliminates the PC for some users.
- Cached information in the Safari browser. With the “Safari Reading List” users can cache selected web pages for reading in offline mode (e.g. on a plane).
For an overview of the key features of iOS 5 please see: http://www.apple.com/ios/ios5/features.html .
Information on the specific features was extracted from a comprehensive list and discussion of iOS 5 functionality provided by Techzoom.