This iOS6.1 fiasco could be the kiss of death for iPad in the Enterprise

It wasn’t designed to take on corporate networks, but the iPad is a staple in big business and connecting to an Exchange Server happens all the time. For the most part it works fine, but as we’ve all becoming painfully aware, there are some issues.

This latest cock up from Apple can quite literally get an iPad or iPhone to tear an Exchange Server apart. Once it mangles the Outlook Calendar, all hell breaks loose and the Transaction Logs start spinning out of control. Then it’s only a matter of time before bells and whistles go off and a rescue attempt needs to be made to clear hard drive space before the database goes offline. And through it all, users generating huge amounts of traffic will be sent to the upper levels of management. So right there a users name and their device will be in front of the world to see just how much havoc they caused.

In the end this is going to cost a fortune, not just in time and money, but in reputation. This basically proves the iPad shouldn’t be used in business and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the damn thing was banned from Corporate America before the month is over. Company Execs are pissed at how much time and effort is being wasted keeping the mail system working because iOS6.1 doesn’t know how to handle calendar items in Exchange. This was a major problem in 4.1, was cleaned up a little for 5.1 and is now a big stinky turd for 6.1. I know for a fact companies are turning off ActiveSync or are blocking iPads from making connections to their mailboxes. With the massive lead Apple has in the tablet market, working with Exchange should have allowed them to bust open the doors to the Enterprise. Now it seems this latest issue is going to shut them right out of that space.

This is simply incredibly poor coding and testing. Apple should have taken more time and care to fix the issues they already knew about. When all the dust settles on this, walking into the office with an iPad in your hand is going to cause people to stare in horror. Will you be the one to bring down the server and stop email for the entire company?

Nice burden to put on people Apple.