Reluctantly Getting an iPhone

[olds]

I am the cell phone coordinator for my group at work. Right now we have a mixture of Blackberry, Android and iPhone.

They are eliminating the Blackberry and pushing us to iPhone though if you can show a need for Android, they will allow it. Our group can show the need but about 60% of them want the iPhone (5s) anyway. The Android choice is the S4 which I personally own.

I don't see the point in carrying two S4s, I am thinking I may go with the iPhone so when people come and ask me for help, I'll at least have a working knowledge.

But I was wondering three things:
Does the iPhone screen change between portrait and landscape when rotating the phone?

Are there as many free apps on the iPhone as there are for Android?
(They won't be able to download apps that cost money. We need Bar Code Scanner and a couple of other apps like ERG 2012)

Can you have 2 "Apple" accounts? One for your personal phone and one for the work phone.
(Some users already had iPhones and when they got the work iPhone they used their personal account to set up the new phone. I want them separate.

This is on Verizon if it makes a difference.
TIA

 

[Theb]

Yes to the first and the last. I'm not sure about the middle, you could browse the app store and get and see what's available.

One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us.

 

[TheStu]

In apps that support it (not all do), yes the screen will switch from between portrait and landscape. However, the lock screen and home screen are set to portrait on the iPhone.

 

[alkemyst]

There are less free apps for the iPhone, however; most of the apps out there are better quality and more stable. Also for almost anything the Android offers free there is a free iPhone app.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Multiple accounts is an odd place to be. It's possible, but it's a PITA. You can only have one account on the phone itself, and family sharing can get you do add apps by syncing with a PC.

 

[olds]

Multiple accounts is an odd place to be. It's possible, but it's a PITA. You can only have one account on the phone itself, and family sharing can get you do add apps by syncing with a PC.

My bad. One account per phone. But if they already have an iPhone I don't want their personal stuff on the work issued iPhone.

 

[manly]

My bad. One account per phone. But if they already have an iPhone I don't want their personal stuff on the work issued iPhone.

Assuming everybody is willing to carry around 2 phones, then that's fine.

But otherwise, you can bet that people will use their company-issued smartphones for personal use half the time. I've never dealt with it, but I suppose that there are administrative tools you can use to lock employees from installing unapproved apps.

 

[olds]

Assuming everybody is willing to carry around 2 phones, then that's fine.

But otherwise, you can bet that people will use their company-issued smartphones for personal use half the time. I've never dealt with it, but I suppose that there are administrative tools you can use to lock employees from installing unapproved apps.

I am sure they will use the work phone for personal use. But don't come crying to me because you lost your work phone and all your kids pics were on it.
In my Verizon account for these phones, I can give or deny many features like the ability to download apps. I'd like to allow it but when the bill hit because they are charging apps to the business account, it wouldn't be pretty.

 

[alkemyst]

Personally if Blackberry is not on the menu, the policy should be one that allows to bring your own device and get out of the company sponsored model.

Allow a fair monthly reimbursement (my company allows for up to $150, the reimbursement is based on the employee's line plus the basic contract, not the full bill)

The phones have to support Exchange, texts/SMS and data tethering.

 

[olds]

Personally if Blackberry is not on the menu, the policy should be one that allows to bring your own device and get out of the company sponsored model.

Allow a fair monthly reimbursement (my company allows for up to $150, the reimbursement is based on the employee's line plus the basic contract, not the full bill)

The phones have to support Exchange, texts/SMS and data tethering.

This is a guess but I imagine we have +-5000 cell phones.

 

[KeithP]

If you haven't already, you might want to check this information out:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/it/deployment.html

You can use a separate Apple IDs for iCloud and iTunes, that is simple enough although I don't know if that helps you. You can also sign into different accounts for mail, contacts and calendars.

-KeithP

 

[Oyeve]

I let my users use whatever they want. But I wont help them with iphones. And the occasional idiot that tries to use Touchdown for email gets their phone instantly wiped. Personal phone or not. Its good to be the IT director. At my job its 50 50 on iphone and android. I personally have a few androids but my "Work" phone is an iphone 5. I use some upgrades for my personal use which is always android. I literally only use the work phone for vendor call and use my personal Note 3 and S5 for everything else. My eye are very nearsighted and the iphone is way too useless for my needs.

 

[olds]

If you haven't already, you might want to check this information out:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/it/deployment.html

You can use a separate Apple IDs for iCloud and iTunes, that is simple enough although I don't know if that helps you. You can also sign into different accounts for mail, contacts and calendars.

-KeithP

Thanks.
If IT had it's way, everyone would be using an iPhone. If fact till I became our coordinator they were telling me we HAD to go to iPhone. I only found out they were "lying", later.

Looking at the apps store I may stick to Android. Seems to be more free apps.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Seems to be more free apps.

Stop worrying about this. 95% of all apps, on either platform, free or not, are just inferior implementations of the app you should be using, or the app you already have, or the functionality that's already built into the phone.

 

[Kaido]

I made iPhones mandatory at my jobsite simply because I don't want to train people on Android & deal with the headaches that go with having a customizable device. iPhones are zero maintenance, easy to use, and have no spyware issues. There are MDM suites out there if you have the capacity for it: (AirWatch, MaaS360, etc.)

https://www.apple.com/iphone/business/it/management.html

This is a bit outdated, but a basic comparison chart of features:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9238981/MDM_tools_Features_and_functions_compared

The only thing I require from the users is to have "Find my iPhone" enabled so that we can track lost or stolen phones if needed. I make sure they're setup with a personal Apple account for backing up their photos & funneling their app purchases into their own account so that (1) I'm not paying for their apps, and (2) if they buy their kids an iPad or whatever, they can transfer everything they own to that (also useful if they quit or get terminated). I also allow for purchase of a quality case (usually an Otterbox or Lifeproof case) as well as several chargers (usually two extra chargers with a spare wall wart & 12V USB adapter for the car). Find a good repair vendor in your area (I can recommend one that we ship out to otherwise) for doing repairs (glass breaks, defective buttons, water damage, etc.); I keep a spare phone or two in my supplies closet for quick swap-outs as well.

It's not that Android is bad, but Apple has a couple things going for them. First of all, iOS is really easy to use. Slide to unlock, tap Email button, voila - even older, non-savvy users get the hang of it pretty quickly; Android can be different from one phone to the next, depending on the service, vendor, device, etc., which can make training more difficult. Second, the "walled garden" environment works to your benefit since users can't change the GUI or install free apps that contain spyware or anything that could potentially screw up the phone. Sure, users can jailbreak, but you can have them sign a policy that they won't do it, which pretty much limits the things they can customize, break, or get infected with. Basically, they're set & forget devices, which is great because I have other things to do with my time than fiddle with phones all day. Generally speaking, once I deploy an iPhone, I never see it again unless they've damaged it. A basic setup checklist: (sans MDM)

1. Activate phone
2. Install protective case (Otterbox is pretty standard, there's a variety of options & thicknesses available)
3. Setup user on iCloud (their personal email address, so they can buy apps)
4. Turn on "Find my iPhone"
5. Give them a basic tutorial if they're not familiar with the device
6. Send them packing with the phone and some cables (6' cable with A/C adapter for home, stock cable with A/C adapter for work desk, and extra cable with car adapter for mobile charger, and optionally an extra 12V/AC combo unit for their travel bag)

And that's it. If they run into any major issues, it's pretty easy to do a factory reset. If they damage it, I swap them out with my spare phone and then send theirs off for repair. I keep a box of spare charging cables since people are always losing or breaking them.

 

[Kaido]

Multiple accounts is an odd place to be. It's possible, but it's a PITA. You can only have one account on the phone itself, and family sharing can get you do add apps by syncing with a PC.

There's a tutorial here:

http://www.grownupgeek.com/how-to-setup-two-icloud-accounts-on-an-iphone

It's basically doing dual iCloud accounts, but on your business account, you only turn on Find my iPhone instead of email etc. (and disable it first on the user's personal account). Although I just set that up under the user's personal account myself so that they can log in & find their phone themselves if they lose it. Granted, I haven't had any issues of people stealing phones or anything, and even if they did, it's not an overly huge loss since we do the $199 2-year contract models instead of paying $700 out-of-pocket, so it works out better financially. And of course there are legal options to pursue if employees steal business phones, but hopefully that's not a big issue for anyone

 

[alkemyst]

Stop worrying about this. 95% of all apps, on either platform, free or not, are just inferior implementations of the app you should be using, or the app you already have, or the functionality that's already built into the phone.

QFT, medicaid and food stamps offer a lot of things for free, but I wouldn't want much of them.

IMHO unless you like to tinker with your device, iPhone is a great option. It just works all the time.

 

[olds]

Stop worrying about this. 95% of all apps, on either platform, free or not, are just inferior implementations of the app you should be using, or the app you already have, or the functionality that's already built into the phone.

Sorry, no. We are emergency responders and we need redundancy. And backups to our backups. I could be outside after an earthquake in my skivvies with only my cell phone. D:

 

[Spineshank]

In my experience, I have had free apps on the iPhone and they were not free on Android. Generally it was because the official app was iPhone only and someone made their own Android version of it and then charged for it.

 

[alkemyst]

Sorry, no. We are emergency responders and we need redundancy. And backups to our backups. I could be outside after an earthquake in my skivvies with only my cell phone. D:

I don't think redundancy means what you think in this case.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Sorry, no. We are emergency responders and we need redundancy. And backups to our backups. I could be outside after an earthquake in my skivvies with only my cell phone. D:

Wait, what? What does a free app have to do with redundancy?

 

[manly]

Wait, what? What does a free app have to do with redundancy?

lol I was going to post this question earlier, but realized I should check my sarcasm meter first.

 

[smackababy]

The answer to all 3 questions are yes. Well, technically, there are more free apps on Android, but that is simply because it is less regulated and filled with garbage. Every utility you want is available, although it might not be the exact same app from the same company as Android.


And, if you're managing these, you're going to have a much simpler life. iPhones are easy enough every middle manager can use them and they are virtually unbreakable from an app standpoint. It is highly unlikely someone is going to screw up their settings so much they require a reset, and even if they do, everything is backed up and easy to recover.


Welcome to the dark side.

 

[rgallant]

just saying
my new 4s was great the first day until the poor batt gave out after 7 hrs with 4 emails and 4 short phone calls with blue tooth lol.with most data turned off
bb ran 14hrs +under the same day use [+3 hrs BT calls]never used the mobile charger ever
now the mobile charge cord does not work on day 3 lol
after 12hrs[unpaid time to add] to set this up to the enterprise network --why-----after 12hrs the phone finely let me know that my apple id was now invalid after the verification/conformation 12hrs before because I did not put a space between the 6 digit postal code and the free downloaded installed mobile program would not run lol.

have to add with the phone' s 5 minute lock up , while I'm talking on the the phone is beyond any LOL I can think of. oh btw you can't log in with the expanded keyboard as it is not required for Facebook users [small fingers maybe] what a joke of a state of the art stupid phone company

DAY 5 OF A IPHONE USER

 

[olds]

just saying
my new 4s was great the first day until the poor batt gave out after 7 hrs with 4 emails and 4 short phone calls with blue tooth lol.with most data turned off
bb ran 14hrs +under the same day use [+3 hrs BT calls]never used the mobile charger ever
now the mobile charge cord does not work on day 3 lol
after 12hrs[unpaid time to add] to set this up to the enterprise network --why-----after 12hrs the phone finely let me know that my apple id was now invalid after the verification/conformation 12hrs before because I did not put a space between the 6 digit postal code and the free downloaded installed mobile program would not run lol.

have to add with the phone' s 5 minute lock up , while I'm talking on the the phone is beyond any LOL I can think of. oh btw you can't log in with the expanded keyboard as it is not required for Facebook users [small fingers maybe] what a joke of a state of the art stupid phone company

DAY 5 OF A IPHONE USER

After talking to a few iPhone users, discussing it here and on the 'net, I am leaning back towards the S4.