iPhone Business Applications

On Tuesday, August 5, 2008 the Wall Street Journal published an article called Ringing Up Business With iPhone Applications by Raymund Flandez. In this article, an example of a business applications is a set of medical flashcards that work on iPhones. They also suggest these business applications, at $39.00 are expensive. OK...let's talk.

Real mobile business applications are extensions of key business applications that are run in the office. These mobile business applications enable you to integrate mobile devices with large, complex database applications that include workflow automation, database queries and business automation. The challenge that Apple has today is that their software SDK (software development kit) does not include synchronization technology that enables software developers to easily move data between a database applications in the office and the iPhone.

Another criticism I have for this article is suggesting that $39.00 for a business application is expensive. Expensive is of course relative, but significant business applications can often be worth $39,000-$390,000 to companies that can automate and mobilize their mobile users.

- Kevin Benedict

MobileDataforce Announces iPhone Software Development Services

MobileDataforce® Announces iPhone Software Development Services

New iPhone software development services enable businesses to deploy custom mobile business applications to the popular iPhone

Boise, Idaho— July 17, 2008 – MobileDataforce®, a leading provider of mobile software solutions for businesses, today announced a new professional services offering for users of the popular Apple iPhone.

MobileDataforce has for years been developing mobile software applications for use on handheld PDAs and helping our customers develop and deploy mobile enterprise software applications around the world on the Windows Mobile and Pocket PC operating systems. We are now adding the capabilities to develop enterprise mobile business applications for use on the iPhone.

About MobileDataforce®

MobileDataforce® is a leader in the development of enterprise class and business critical software solutions for use on mobile computers including Smart Phones, Handhelds, PDAs, Tablet PCs and laptops. MobileDataforce has sales offices in Europe, North America and in Australia to support their expanding customer base and sales channels. Privately held, MobileDataforce has been mobilizing business solutions since 2000. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.mobiledataforce.com/.

Apple Stores and Motorola MC50s

I had the opportunity to be in an Apple store in New York City last month. I was again very intrigued that Apple employees were still using Motorola handheld PDAs inside the Apple stores. I would think that Apple would want to replace these handheld PDAs that run Windows Mobile operating systems and are manufactured by their smartphone and PDA competitors. It will be interesting to watch this situation.

MobileDataforce is now developing custom mobile software applications for businesses wanting to extend the use of their iPhones or handheld PDAs into their business processes.

- Kevin Benedict

Apple Could Make Things Easier for th iPhone Smartphone

It is a good thing MobileDataforce's professional services organization has so much experience developing enterprise mobile software applications and synchronizing with back office systems, because Apple has certainly not offered much help in making the iPhone enterprise ready. We are developing iPhone applications now for customers and are often coding our own software to fill many gaps in Apple's SDK.

This experience is predictable when new technology is released. It takes companies like MobileDataforce to fill in the missing links. Even with these early stage issues, it is certainly fun and the iPhone smartphone is absolutely capable of being a value enterprise tool for the mobile workforce.

GPS Features on the iPhone

One of the coolest features of the Apple iPhone for businesses is the integrated GPS functionality. Companies can use these features for a large variety of purposes including:

• Adding time and date stamps PLUS GPS coordinates to work orders as a way of proving the time, data and location of work performed
• Enabling service technicians and delivery vans to be tracked in near real-time.
• Helping drivers reach their destination faster and with less fuel
• Associating job estimates to a GPS location
• Locating and identifying the location of various pieces of equipment and other assets
• Associating conditional assessments for asset management with a GPS location. This can be used to locate buildings, walls, sidewalks, sprinkler heads etc, that require repair

The list can go on forever because there is a HUGE amount of value in adding geospatial information to just about any field service activity. Including this feature on an iPhone is one more step toward making the iPhone a valueable business tool for the enterprise.

MobileDataforce is currently working on a number of mobile business applications for the iPhone.

Business Applications for Apple iPhones

MobileDataforce has just started a very cool mobile business application for use on the Apple iPhone. My team has over 50 years experience developing custom mobile applications yet are still excited about using their experience with the iPhones.

This iPhone business application involves the following:

• Login to an office database application from an iPhone
• Enter Sales Order information on the iPhone in the field and transfer the order to the database application in the office
• Enter Shipping information on the iPhone and transfer the information to the database application in the office
• Initiate credit card processing on the database application in the office
• Receive acknowledgement of Order acceptance and CC processing
• Initiate an order fulfillment and shipping process in the warehouse

This is just one of many iPhone applications and projects that MobileDataforce is reviewing and/or developing for our customers at this time. It is fun, but challenging as Apple has not provided complete tool sets for iPhone development yet. Currently we must develop many of the tools ourselves to address the needs of the enterprise business application market, but eventually Apple will offer more tools to simplify the most common enterprise integration needs.

Let the fun begin for the iPhone enterprise application market!

Apple Stores, iPhones & Symbol MC50 Handhelds an Interesting Combination

I was shopping in Portland, Oregon yesterday and observed a very interesting combination of handheld computers, iPhones and PDAs at work. As I was shopping in the Apple store at Pioneer Place, I noticed that the Apple sales people were all carrying Symbol/Motorola MC50 handheld computers with wireless support, credit card swipers and bar code scanners all running on Windows Mobile 5.0 operating systems. Do you see the irony in this? The Apple sales people are selling smartphones (iPhones) and PDAs (iTouch) using the Apple operating system, but all of their sales people use Windows Mobile operating systems for their business applications. This is just not right.

The way the Apple sales people were using the MC50s handhelds was very cool. They could swipe debit and credit cards anywhere in the store, give you the product and email your receipt to you. That is very cool! No long lines at the cash register, the sales people can take care of all credit card and debit card purchases anywhere in the store. Now if only they could figure out a way to accomplish that using their own Apple PDAs.