The hype surrounding the latest annual iPhone release is dangerous turf for entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Let us warn against getting sucked in by the marketing puff, as much of the supposed functionality is both expensive and consumes more time than it saves.

The marketing people are keen on selling ‘enterprise solutions’ but most business customers will not use their phone for anything more than calls, texts and email.

Web browsing would be great if it was usable. But the reality is that pages take forever to load and then drain the battery far too quickly. This is not a practical business solution.

Admittedly, the latest version claims to load webpages three times faster, but that’s still much too slow for everyday use.

“Tethering”, allowing you to use your iPhone for mobile broadband, comes at a very hefty additional charge – if it is available at all.

It seems that every application you want to use comes with an added cost. Users have to pay a high base price anyway, but then to get the phone to do everything you bought it to do requires further very substantial outlays that make it cost prohibitive.

But the downsides are not just cost. Rather than save you time an iPhone will waste your time. Though regarded as one of the most user friendly ‘smart phones’, there is still just too much damn fiddling and setting up involved. Fine if you’re a gadget person and this sort of indulgence is a hobby, but serious business people don’t need gimmicks – they need tools that get the job done and get it done quickly.

Maybe large organisations with dedicated IT departments can invest tens of thousands of dollars, euros or pounds setting up iPhones and integrating the technology with their systems. But this is beyond the means of nearly every small business.