Seven benefits of the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 for business

14.09.2012
Apple unveiled a variety of new products and features at its media event yesterday. While a veritable rainbow of iPod Touch options, or re-engineered headphones might be exciting news for some, they're irrelevant to businesses or business users.

Fear not, though. Apple also revealed some good news for business users. There are aspects of , and features in the that will make iOS devices more useful and effective as mobile productivity tools.

If you already use iOS devices for business, or you're considering deploying iOS mobile devices or implementing a BYOD policy that allows users to bring their own devices to work, here are seven benefits of the new iPhone and iOS that you should be aware of:

1. Better, faster connectivity

The iPhone 4S remains the only flagship smartphone of any of the major platforms that lacks 4G. Apple introduced 4G/LTE cellular with the new iPad back in the spring, and now the iPhone 5 is also .

This may not be Earth-shattering news for AT&T iPhone users. The HSPA+ cellular that iOS detects as 4G delivers reasonably fast data speeds. However, I have a Verizon 3G iPhone 4S and a Verizon 4G/LTE iPad sitting in front of me. They both have the same three bars of signal, but the SpeedTest.net app reports a download speed of only 0.83Mbps on the Verizon 3G compared to 11.04Mbps on the Verizon LTE. That means that my Verizon LTE is more than 13 times faster than the 3G--and that's just sitting in my home office. I've gotten speeds approaching 30Mbps on the iPad while out and about.