OneNote iPhone app from Microsoft
Something interesting came from the Microsoft Office group last week, an iPhone app. That alone would raise eyebrows, but it is the choice of application that is something to think about. Most users of Office on the desktop, both on the Mac and Windows sides, would find it useful to synchronize documents such as Word and Excel with a mobile device. Microsoft provides this functionality in Windows Mobile 7, and it is available via add-on products such as Documents to Go. But the application they chose to put on the iPhone first is OneNote. OneNote is the forgotten application in Microsoft Office that has been there since Office 2003. It is a program that is an organizer, project planner, and generalized note taking application that can store text, handwriting, audio and video. There has been no version for the Macintosh.
Why OneNote as the first Microsoft Office mobile application for the iPhone? OneNote is able to synchronize with the cloud via the Microsoft Skydrive service. It is also available as one of the Microsoft Office Web Apps, their competition for Google Docs. Google Docs has a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation features, but Google has nothing like OneNote. It makes sense for Microsoft to launch their first Office app for the iPhone with the one application that Google does not have.
OneNote happens to be a great program that demonstrates the type of creativity that is present at Microsoft. Mobile OneNote may have its adherents, but it also faces significant competition. Evernote has been widely adopted, has many of OneNote’s features, and is available on a broad range of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, and Blackberry.
References:
OneNote Mobile for iPhone
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