I’ve recently been part of a conversation over at Tech Republic regarding Jason Hiner’s post “Five reasons why BlackBerry is still winning in the enterprise”.

In short, I don’t think Apple cares much about the enterprise sector- at least as far as the iPhone goes. My guess is that Apple doesn’t lose (much) by not owning the enterprise market and therefore doesn’t care (much). Here’s why..

Integrated devices (ID) are what mobile operators call those devices that incorporate functionality other than voice and text messaging – what most of us refer to as smartphones. In a recent Q1 2010 earnings call, Rick Lindner, AT&T CFO called ID users “high quality customers”. Why? Overall, ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) was up nearly 4% in the quarter for AT&T, driven mostly by an increase in data plan usage. That is significant. More important however is ID users generate an average ARPU of $90 – an amazing 1.7 times that of standard customers. Understand that only 50% of AT&T’s post-paid customers currently have data plans and you begin to see why operators want iPhones and other smartphones on their networks. This particular group of users can impact mobile operator bottom lines in a significant way, especially when coupled with a two year service commitment.

Since ID users in general are so attractive for operators, the question of iPhone or Blackberry from an operator point of view is neutral at best. In fact I would say from a raw profit perspective, the iPhone is a strong favorite because there is no longer any revenue sharing agreement with Apple. Operators would suffer by not offering Blackberry since the enterprise segment is very important.

Apple doesn’t comment publicly on this, though it is suspected that contrary to the Mac side of the business, they make more money on iPhone app sales than on hardware sales. In other words, profit margin on iPhone hardware is less than profit generated through purchases from iTunes and the App Store over the life of the iPhone. Now couple that with the introduction of iAd and the profit generated through in-app ad sales. Apple would make little if anything on Apps or ads in the enterprise space since most companies restrict their employee’s ability to make unauthorized purchases on their phones. So, no premium SMS voting for your favorite American Idol (or for our international audience, Superstar). No apps. And no App and ad revenue.

Now if Apple were to roll out strong enterprise support coupled with premium services (a la RIM) that companies could justify paying for, this might change. For now, I just don’t see Apple’s motivation to push the iPhone into the enterprise sector.

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