iPhone secure enough for Japanese enterprise

While the iPhone might be not secure enough for American and European enterprises, BrearingPoint has decided to equip 1,000 of its Japanese employees with Apple's uberphone.

Softbank Mobile is providing the handsets to BearingPoint, a technical consultancy that currently issues its consultants in Japan with both a phone and a data card.

The deal is the first major corporate iPhone contract in Japan according to PC World, and is significant as smartphones haven't proved as popular in Japan as elsewhere. That's partly because of the functionality offered by "feature phones", but also because of the control exerted by network operators over handset design and capability.

The iPhone has raised the profile of smartphones, and the Apple-controlled application distribution mechanism provides an intermediate step between the strictly-operator-controlled existing environment and the free-for-all chaos of Windows Mobile, Symbian - or indeed Android - application distribution systems.

The security issues that still afflict the iPhone don't trouble BearingPoint, though many western companies will want to see better security implemented by Apple before they risk their company secrets on the platform. ®