Apple to gather iPhone apps windfall

On-demand ERP and corporate email due in next two months

Business applications for Apple’s iPhone are beginning to crop up.

NetSuite will from next month offer SuitePhone, an optimised version of its hosted business applications for the iPhone. SuitePhone will provide subscribers with a free add-on that makes NetSuite’s accounting, e-commerce and business management tools available on the mobile Safari browser.

NetSuite vice-president of international products Craig Sullivan said it created its first optimisation for a handset in part because the iPhone offered the easiest portable browser to use and a level of “sophistication closest to the desktop”.

Apple’s developer restrictions on the iPhone have caused problems for third-party developers but web-based programs such as NetSuite have an advantage as there is no need to install client code.

NetSuite’s Sullivan also argued that the iPhone’s lack of a physical keypad would not necessarily be a major issue.

“Everyone says there’s no keyboard but the usage pattern when people are mobile is different to when they are at their desks,” Sullivan said. “The mobile application is basically giving people access to data when they need it, and letting users update records on the fly. Then, when necessary, they’ll return to the application to complete input.”

Separately, push email provider Visto said it is still working on a list of about 15 features that could make it into its Visto Mobile for the iPhone program that supports Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino email servers. Visto said it expects to make the service commercially available in September for customers that sign up beforehand.

Whereas Visto would usually install software on the client, Apple’s restrictions mean that the iPhone service will instead be run over the IMAP protocol.

“With the iPhone, we use IMAP and translate queries in real time to enterprise queries,” said Visto chief architect, Haniff Somani.

Somani conceded that the ability to load client software would have been useful but Visto is trying to work around the problem by adding web apps that will “definitely” include directory lookup services.

“[With Visto’s client software] there’s a much better user experience with access to directory, calendar and contacts included from the same place, setup is easier, there’s connectivity advice and we can compress data at least 5x,” Somani said. “I would have liked SyncML synchronisation of calendar and contacts. [An agreement between Visto and Microsoft for] ActiveSync might be a step in the right direction but it’s a very limited solution that only serves Exchange 2003 and later [releases]. A vast number of folks out there are on previous versions or Domino.”

UK-based Synchronica is using Exchange’s Outlook Web Access feature on its Mobile Gateway 3.0 to retrieve mail from Exchange and forward it to iPhones.

Although it is too early to say how popular the iPhone will be on corporate networks, many see a role for it as a device for occasional access to office materials.

“Its appeal seems to transcend all groups,” said Visto’s Somani. “People are thrilled by the ability to integrate a personal and professional tool and one of the nice things for businesses is that it seamlessly roams on your Wi-Fi networks.”