The iPhone dons a suit and tie

IT departments are finally starting to buy Apple’s smartphone, says a Deutsche Bank report

“There is growing evidence that the iPhone is making inroads into the Enterprise,” writes Deutsche Bank research analyst Chris Whitmore in a report to clients Monday.

According to his estimates, Apple (AAPL) by the end of the year will have shipped about 2 million iPhones into corporate accounts through various routes, including internal IT department purchases and formal reimbursement policies.

That would give Apple about a 7% share of the enterprise smartphone market this year, up from 2% in 2008.

IT departments were famously resistant to the iPhone when it was launched two years ago. That resistance has begun to melt, writes Whitmore, for several reasons:

User satisfaction. He cites the recent J.D. Power survey that named the iPhone “best in class” for both the consumer and enterprise markets
Virtual keyboard. The initial perception that physical keyboards are critical for enterprise users has proved to be a “fallacy,” says Whitmore.
Enterprise applications. Among the 95,000 apps available for the iPhone, Whitmore estimates that 6,000 are enterprise-related, illustrating what he calls the “accelerating utility of the platform.”
Sluggish competition. The incumbents, Research in Motion (RIMM) and Microsoft (MSFT) Windows Mobile, with >60% and 20% enterprise share, respectively, “are years behind Apple,” he writes, “and appear to be losing ground in Developer support / Application development.”