iPhone lands at Disneyland
Anyone who believes the iPhone is only a consumer device needs to visit Fantasyland, Tomorrowland … and other parts of Disneyland in Anaheim, California. In a familiar scene that’s playing out in companies across the United States, certain Disney executives have purchased iPhones — and now the Disney IT staff is testing the devices as well. Anyone who believes the iPhone is only a consumer device needs to visit Fantasyland, Tomorrowland … and other parts of Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
In a familiar scene that’s playing out in companies across the United States, certain Disney executives have purchased iPhones — and now the Disney IT staff is testing the devices as well.
Sure, some pundits don’t believe the iPhone is a match for business and municipal employees. But from the East Coast (within the IT offices of Cablevision) to the West Coast (at Disneyland), we’re hearing reports of business executives buying iPhones.
I spent Tuesday evening touring Disneyland with Allen Fazio, VP and CIO for the Disneyland Resort. During the tour — which included a look at Disney’s WiFi-based mobile point-of-sale systems — it became clear that the iPhone is catching on among certain Disney employees.
One of the tour guides from Disney’s technology team, “Scott,” confirmed that some Disney executives already use iPhones — prompting the IT team to take a close look at the devices. Scott is among Disney’s early iPhone adopters, and he seemed generally pleased with the device.
Like just about everyone else in the iPhone world, Disney insiders read reports about the iPhone allegedly causing wireless network problems at Duke University. Cisco Systems, however, later confirmed that the problem was a Cisco-based network issue. Regardless, the issue highlights the need for corporate and municipal IT to fully test the iPhone on enterprise networks.
Point of Sale
Back at Disneyland, the iPhone’s appeal appears limited to executives — while special-purpose handhelds from Symbol Technologies (now owned by Motorola) dominate business activities within the company’s theme parks. Most of the devices are Symbol MC50 rugged handhelds running Windows Mobile Edition.
Street vendors (in Disney terms, “cast members”) within the park use the WiFi-enabled systems to sell food, beverages, and Disney merchandise to park guests. Secure VPN (virtual private network) connections link the Symbol devices to back-end Disney systems. Customer credit card information and other confidential data flows across the VPN links. Disney is also testing tablet PCs for wireless point-of-sale applications.
Disney generally does not offer open WiFi access to park visitors, limiting such services to Disney hotel areas, Fazio noted.
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