Apple is known for their innovation and support. It is clear that there is a very specific development cycle within the software group. This process is very guarded and up until right before release, the features are typically unknown. This makes it tough for application developers to plan products that have and longevity, if they aren't immediately included in an OS release.
This has happened for a number of products designed around missing features in the iPhone OS. A couple of examples are as follows. Consider remote file access. This is a big missing feature in the initial releases. Naturally, many vendors rallied around providing various products to make up for the lacking functionality. A number of solutions addressed this via various cloud-based offerings. The most compelling were those that provided WebDAV support and actually provided MobileMe access. Quickoffice developers provided Mobile Files which has since been named Quickoffice Files (iTunes link) and has been rolled into their suite of products. Another great implementation was Air Sharing (iTunes link) by Avatron software. They offer a couple of versions with different features. It didn't take long for Apple to provide their MobileMe iDisk client (iTunes link) which is a very nice application for Mobile Me users. This is an example of Apple eventually providing application support. Apple also implements native support for certain features where app developers have addressed the lack of functionality. A good example of this was the initial lack of a landscape keyboard. There are a number of landscape keyboard apps that hit the App Store as a result. The following are just a few of the many that are available (all are iTunes links): Compose, Sideways, Wide Email. Then there was the 3.0 release of the iPhone OS and these apps are now somewhat less appealing and competitive due to the inclusion of the landscape keyboard. It is imperative that some level of product planning is necessary. The fact that Apple is subject to provide your functionality as a part of the core OS is always a possibility but it is not always a bad thing. Many of the apps mentioned above differentiate themselves by adding additional features within the solution thus staying ahead of the curve. Competition, whether it be from other developers or Apple directly, encourages innovation and creativity. There are still many opportunities to enhance the iPhone user experience (wink, wink) and we believe that we have a great future ahead that is full of great applications that provide real value and benefit.
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