There is no question that the iPhone has been revolutionary.  It has given consumers the power to hold the internet in their hands like no product that has come before.  ”Regular” people started to check their email through out the day.  They checked the World Cup scores as the games were being played.  They began to listen to streaming music from Pandora, RDIO and Spotify as their own, personal radio station.

And then came the Blackberry Storm, Android phones and lots of iPhone knock-offs….and they were good.  So good, that Apple decided the advance the ball one more step, and the iPad was born.  Suddenly people were reading and watching and creating wherever and whenever they wanted.  Including at work and during work.  And that was bad.

From what I have seen, many employees bring their iPhones, Android phones and iPads to work.  Rich employees and poor employees.  File clerks and CEOs.  And do you know what they are using?  The company’s guest Wifi.  All day long.

How is this impacting corporate networks?  Are Wifi networks getting bogged down?  Is bandwidth for visitors getting used up?  Are there more help desk calls for the guest wireless?  Are employers monitoring their public Wifi networks for abuse?  Are previously insecure Wifi networks being exploited now that more people are paying attention to how it works?

Or is this all a good thing?  At least the personal traffic is no longer on work computers.  At least the guest Wifi is typically segregated from corporate internal networks.  So maybe the problem has been pushed way to to realm of the personal and, therefore, the problem has been solved.  Maybe.

What do you think?  This “problem” has to be getting “worse” with every passing day.  Or maybe the “solution” is getting “better.”  It is hard to know.