Friday, February 29, 2008

SDK is the key to... Everything?

Is it really true that once the SDK is released, corporate
applications such as Lotus Notes will be porter over to the iPhone?
Microsoft Exchange compatibility? If so, it will be a Big Thing as
that will allow the device to really join the corporate band of
enterprise mobile devices, currently enjoyed by WinMobile and
Blackberry units.
But consider this: if consumers are already fretting about the lack of
selecting, copying and pasting, how will business users react? Ergo,
would Apple have finally resolved that matter by the time the SDK is
announced?
As a consumer device spcifically made for entertainment and basic
telephony (albeit packaged into a beautiful UI) the iPhone is
fantastic. As a business device there is much to be improved on.
So here is my own wish list of things that would need to be addressed:
1- Ability to select, cut, copy and paste text and images. Pretty much
essential.
2- Undo and Redo at least past 5 mistakes. Can you imagine how
frustrated users get when they cannot recover something imprtant that
they deleted accidentally?
3- Horizontal typing in SMS, Mail and Notes as a minimum. If this can
be standardised across all apps, this would be even better, as it
eliminates guesswork and allows users to type in their preferred
orientation.
4- Spotlight-like indexing to quickly find all data matching criteria.
The vertical roladex is very cool, buy business users would definitely
require even faster and efficient access to that information. If this
can also expand to cover Notes and Calendar too, it would make a
fantastic CRM device!
5- To Do list that is synchronised to Mail, Outlook or Lotus Notes.

Those are just enhancements on existing 1st party software, let alone
3rd party development.

What else would you like to see on iPhone that would be required
before it can bf accepted into the Enterprise world?

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