iPhone News Updated

iPhone hits runs but stumped by keyboard

iPhone hits runs but stumped by keyboard

WHEN Apple’s iPhone first hit the market, there was a lot of talk about what a cute device it was for consumers - but utterly unthinkable for serious business use.

No executive worth his or her pinstripe suit would want to be seen dead with one of these colourful toys, we were told.

Funny thing, but almost three months after the iPhone’s introduction to Australia, Doubleclick increasingly spots it being whisked from executive pockets and shown off by honchos from some of our biggest and most conservative enterprises.

Some of the biggest names in big-business software are now rushing to produce applications for the 3G iPhone.

Salesforce.com, which promotes software-as-a-service business applications delivered via the web, started the rush.

It offers software that lets mobile professionals use their iPhone to look up a customer’s order history or access customer relationship management information on a Salesforce database back at the office.

Oracle followed with an app that allows out-of-office workers to access a wide range of business intelligence information, including reports and analytics, on head office Oracle servers.

Soon afterwards, enterprise software giant SAP launched an iPhone suite that allows workers on the move to access business contacts, information on sales prospects, and account data.

Last week the most conservative of all big computer companies, IBM, went one better with a version of its Lotus Notes email and Domino work collaboration system for iPhone: “IBM puts iPhone in Lotus position” was briefly the most common headline on internet computing news sites.

Lotus users on the run access their office email and calendar via Lotus iNotes Ultralite, a stripped-down version of the IBM application that runs on the iPhone’s Safari web browser.

IBM, it should be noted, is not solely backing the Apple gadget. Far from it: for some time Big Blue has provided Notes support for Research in Motion’s inherently more secure BlackBerry devices, as well as Nokia and Windows Mobile handhelds.

Another big-biz outfit joining the iPhone parade is Avaya, a US-based outfit that specialises in telecommunications services for enterprise customers.

From November in Australia it will offer one-X Mobile for iPhone, a system that unites office and mobile phone networks: a “unified communications” system in the industry argot.

What that basically means is calls to your office phone get routed to your iPhone when you’re on the road. You can also ring back via your office extension, thereby keeping your iPhone number private.

IBM, Oracle, SAP, Avaya, Salesforce.com: it’s a pretty good line-up, which gives the engaging little iPhone some pretty good provenance in the business world.

But there’s one name that’s conspicuously missing, along with a bundle of applications that would make the iPhone a true mobile business tool.

You guessed it: the name is Microsoft, the biggest of all.

Yes, the iPhone does have built-in support for Exchange, Microsoft’s corporate email service, which means road warriors can have their email automatically forwarded to their iPhones, although without the heavy security built into BlackBerry systems.

Microsoft didn’t put a lot of effort into the Exchange service for iPhone: Apple simply licensed it as a necessity if its new gadget was to make any inroads into business ranks.

So far the giant of Redmond appears to have done nothing to develop what the iPhone is most noticeably missing: a lightweight but effective Office suite.

Flick your fingers through the 1000-plus iPhone applications in Apple’s iPhone store, and you won’t find a single word processing program, or one spreadsheet creator, or a hint of a presentation program.

True, not too many people are panting to do spreadsheets on the iPhone, but the lack of word processing is annoying for business users.

Microsoft produces office mini-suites for handhelds powered by its Windows Mobile software: it surely can’t be too hard to port them across to the Apple platform, with a suitable licensing fee, of course.

The iPhone, unlike most BlackBerry or Windows Mobile devices, has a good-sized, crystal-clear screen that would work when turned sideways.

It would still need something else again to make word processing work well: a small, perhaps foldable, wireless keyboard.

Tapping with one finger on the on-screen virtual keyboard is OK for short emails, but irritating for anything longer.

Bluetooth technology is built into the Apple gadget and the whisper was that Macally, which makes many accessories for Macs and iPods, was developing just such a beast.

That was months ago and, alas, the iPhone Bluetooth keyboard has failed to appear. Likewise a simple iPhone Office suite.

What a pity. What an opportunity.

davfrith@gmail.com

Comments are closed.