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iPhone Every multifunction device has an Achilles' Heel, and with theiPhone it's enterprise capabilities, says a wireless trends expert.

 Maha Ibrahim, an investor and specialist in wireless trends atCanaan Partners venture capital, said Apple faces severalchallenges as it pushes iPhone 3G into the enterprise market. Shesaid that though the handset is a great device, the iPhone 3G'slack of a QWERTY keyboard and

meager battery life top its list of weaknesses when it comes to meeting the needs ofbusiness users.

 "Apple is certainly trying ut I just don't think, given thelack of a QWERTY keyboard, that you're going to see the iPhonesupplant the BlackBerry in terms of usage in the enterprise,"Ibrahim said in a phone interview.

 Research In Motion's BlackBerry, she explained, is primarilydesigned with e-mail in mind. By way of comparison, Apple's e-mailfunctions are not streamlined enough for the business user,requiring multiple actions to execute actions such as deletingmessages. And though the iPhone features a fancy web browser, iPodand so forth, those features aren't useful for business purposes,she added.

  Phone reliability would also top the list of concerns for abusiness user -- and Ibrahim said AT&T isn't the ideal choice in that regard.

 "Particularly in the bay area, that's been AT&T's cross tobear," she said. "It's cobbled together a network ofCellularOne, which is terrible, and a few others. It's not thegreatest coverage."

 Ibrahim makes some fine points, which we'll delve into deeper thisweek when we speak to some enterprise and corporate users. Theimplementation of push e-mail in iPhone 2.0 is a welcome addition,as well as Exchange support, but as it stands, the popular handsetteeters heavily toward being an entertainment device rather thanthe enterprise handset it wishes it could be as well.

 Besides -- if the iPhone were enough, why would people