Should You Buy an iPhone for Your Small Business?

A small business owner asked me which phone he should buy. The short answer is: small business people should buy an iphone for it’s superior web surfing ability, enormous number of applications and excellent ease of use.

Having said that, let me be clear I’m not telling you which phone to buy or what will work best for you. I’ll add a personal disclaimer as well – I carry an iPhone and would buy another in a second because I am online constantly: checking our website status, seeing how our users are doing and sending emails and texts to keep my posse together. I use it as a phone only a distant third. You are certain to have different needs and priorities.

Here are some things you should consider:

• What will you use the phone for most?
• Will getting emails and text messages on your phone help or hurt your business?
• Can you afford the additional cost of having a data/web plan?
• How rugged does the phone need to be and will it fit in your pocket, purse etc.?
• What’s your total budget? (hint: the purchase price is a loss leader to get you hooked into an expensive data plan)

Here’s a fun little quiz to take that tells you whether you should buy an iPhone or not. It’s not specific for small business but it’s a fun use of an expert system.

Infoworld did an extensive test of the most popular phones (ultimately agreeing with my conclusion: buy an iPhone for small business) and summarized their findings in the table below. You can read the article by clicking on the image: