Apple's iPhone Getting Hung Up in Hollywood

Hollywood has always been a gadget-friendly town full of early adopters, but don't expect Apple's new iPhone, which goes on sale today, to replace the ubiquitous Blackberry on the Wilshire corridor anytime soon. And it's not for lack of want. Many studios, networks and agencies have told their employees that they can't do business on an iPhone because of security and compatibility problems. In fact, HBO and Warner Bros. even sent out memos asking employees to stop bugging them about switching to iPhones. "While there is great anticipation and buzz around the iPhone, it is intended primarily for the consumer market," the Warner email said. "It lacks key security features which make it unsuitable, in it's (sic) present form, as a corporate email device. At WB and all of TW, we have standardized on the Blackberry and expect to continue with this standard."

So it's going to take a while for the IT departments to evaluate security features and give their blessing to the device. But even when they do, there's good reason to believe that the iPhone still might have problems catching on with the entertainment industry. And that's because of the iPhone's touch keyboard. Hollywood has grown overdeveloped thumbs from the amount of Crackberry typing it does, and Apple's keyboard makes memoing at a screening or while sitting in traffic a tough proposition.

iPhone gets busy signal [Variety]