Apple to announce corportate push with Iphone tomorrow

But now Jobs wants to go corporate. On Mar. 6, at its Cupertino (Calif.) campus, Apple (AAPL) is expected to announce a strategy to use its Web-browsing iPhone to move into the corporate market. Apple will likely unveil plans to spur development of more software for the phone, to improve security on the device, and to make it compatible with popular e-mail systems such as Microsoft's (MSFT) ubiquitous Outlook. Such steps may make corporations more willing to approve the iPhone for use by their employees. The moves will put Apple into direct competition with Research In Motion (RIMM), whose BlackBerry devices now dominate the wireless e-mail market.

The corporate push comes at a time when Apple badly needs a new source of growth. The company's shares have fallen 35% so far this year because of slowing iPod sales and softening consumer spending. The iPhone may well represent Apple's best chance in years of tapping the corporate market. Not only will employees be more likely to afford the phone's steep $400 price tag with their company's help, but many are already hankering for fashionable, useful alternatives to the BlackBerry and other existing devices. "The next big battleground is the wireless [market for corporations]," says Rich Nespola, chairman and chief executive of Management Network Group, a telecommunications consultancy.

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