What will the "new enterprise features" of Apple's iPhone be, and does the use of the phrase by Apple in a recent invite mean that the next great enterprise smartphone battle will be between iPhone and RIM BlackBerry?

This is the question raised by Apple-watchers in the wake of a report  in a BusinessWeek blog on the daily doings of Apple and the many companies in its orbit that "Apple has figured out how it wants to tap demand from all those corporate types that wish their employer would support the iPhone as well as other devices such as the Blackberry."

In the blog BW's Peter Burrows writes:

"Just got an email from Apple PR. The company is going to announce its plans on the iPhone SDK at the Apple campus on March 6.

The email invitation says: 'Please join us to learn about the iPhone software roadmap, including the iPhone SDK and some exciting new enterprise features.' Those enterprise features probably involve some level of support for Microsoft Exchange above and beyond simple IMAP support, which has been the one big feature requested since Day one. I’ll be curious to see what else in the enterprise category that Apple has on tap."

One immediate question raised was the question of whether companies would in reality put up with a special server for iPhones while still supporting BlackBerries. One suggestion was that Apple's best strategy would perhaps be to license a BlackBerry client from RIM. 

• Apple Edges Closer to Release of Authorized iPhone SDK