iPhone hacking will have a negative effect enterprise sales

Yesterday, I talked about a positive effect that the iPhone could have on the enterprise adoption of Macs. Unfortunately, there is an uglier side of Apple's iPhone that it should really be concerned with as far as reputation and security goes. There is a real danger of it spilling over to the Mac Platform as well - the 'horn effect.'

Hacking.

Today, about a week after its launch, the iPhoneDev team hacked the iPhone Version 2 software that will be on iPhones released in June. The one that has all of the enterprise features and will be marketed at enterprise. Things like:

• Certificates and Identities
• WPA2/802.1x
• Enforced security policies
• More VPN protocols
• Device configuration
• Remote wipe
• Your kids can ssh into your device and hijack your corporate information

What is this saying to enterprise IT? When 13-year olds are hacking into the devices that are supposed to hold all of their corporate information, how are users going to feel secure that their data is protected?

Apple, for its part, has been pretty relaxed about securing the iPhone. Tim Cook recently said of the unlocking "Its a problem that we love to have - because it shows demand overseas."

No, it isn't.

A reputation for easy hacking isn't going to get you into the enterprise very quickly - if at all. At the very least, it will give competitors and naysayers an easy excuse to pass over the platform. If the Apple brand is identified with easy hacking - that can extend to the Mac platform as well - the opposite of the halo effect. This is unfortunate because one of the great things about the Mac OS is that it is very secure and the security doesn't come at a usability cost like Vista.

What to do?

Apple, if they want to sell lots of phones (10 million by years end) and they want to sell to a security-conscious enterprise, have to lock their platform down - for real. This will leave all of the one million unlocked iPhone users out in the cold and kill unlocked iPhone sales - 25 - 33% of Apple's business, depending who you ask. This is something I don't think Apple is prepared to do.

Apple, up until this point has had its cake (carrier revenues) and ate it too (unlocked iPhone sales)

What Apple REALLY should do is open up the iPhone to be available on any carrier (that supports it). All of the unlocked iPhones would still work and Apple could still earn a revenue off of them through the App Store. Additionally, they could open up the development platform more - so that developers aren't forced to make hacked applications. Then they should really lock down the device - like for real.

This will cost Apple its cut of the carrier revenues - but in the long run will be much better for consumers.

...and, most importantly, won't make people think Apple makes the products that even a 13 year old can hack.

...before you fire up those nasty fanboy comments that we all love, remember I am talking about perception, not technical merits. The Halo effect isn't technical - the point of my post is that when people think of iPhones - they think "hackable" - not something a government agency want to give its clients. Sure, all phones are hackable to an extent - but are they known for their hackability?