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In business, it seems like you have a BlackBerry, you have a Treo, or you have a very comparable model from, say, Samsung. If you’re a hipster looking to impress your friends, you have an iPhone. Apple is looking to change that perceptin. On Thursday, the company announced that it will support push email. This is the system used by BlackBerry, Palm, etc., which makes your smartphone email kind of like your desktop email. The two — your handheld and your desktop/laptop — are normally synced through an Enterprise server. So it looks like Research In Motion, makers of the BlackBerry, have a bit of competition now. They’ve had a stranglehold on the business smartphone market for quite some time.

The message isn’t aimed at RIM, though. Rather, it’s aimed at Apple’s customers, according to the company’s CEO, Steve Jobs: “[W]e’re not sending them a message, we’re sending our customers a message that we’re meeting their needs.”

Apple also said it has reached a licensing agreement with Microsoft Corp. ( MSFT) that enables the iPhone to integrate with Microsoft’s Exchange Server technology. That’s meant to enable iPhone business users to remotely tap into not only email, but also calendars and contact lists, with an added layer of security.

American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu said that Apple’s news ” definitely met expectations.”

But Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt wrote in a note to clients Thursday that the iPhone still faces an uphill battle to take business customers from not only RIM, but also Microsoft, which offers Windows Mobile software.

One area of concern, McCourt wrote, is that RIM has already built a so-called “network operations center,” or NOC, an expensive arrangement that enables it to offer heightened security. “Given the expense associated with building a NOC, it is unlikely Apple will try to replicate this,” he wrote.

That’s really been the knock on the iPhone from most business users. It wasn’t so much the push email or the lack of Microsoft Exchange Server compatibility. It was the security.

Will the iPhone make a splash for businesses? While I can’t really know, I have to guess at “no.” The BlackBerry has a hold of the market for a reason. There might be some initial scurrying towards the iPhone, but RIM is built for the long run. I think their customers see that, too.

[CNN Money]

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