Getting To Your Contacts From Your Smartphone

I wouldn’t call it a Blackberry or Smartphone contact manager yet – but it’s a step in the right direction.

Slowly but steadily, some of the products we reviewed in our series on web based contact management software are now announcing or already offering support for smart phones such as the Blackberry or iPhone. 

That’s good news for road warriors. I need access to my contacts, notes and tasks when I’m out on the road, not just when I’m camping in front of my PC.

What “mobile support” means in most cases is that you can access your contacts via a web page that is optimized for slower connection speeds and smaller screens. It’s important to keep in mind – in most cases your contacts will not reside on your mobile device. You’re simply connecting to the web application using an optimized interface.

Batchbook’s Adam Darowsky describes the need for such a true mobile solution quite eloquently.

We iPhone owners like to brag that the iPhone boasts a full-featured web browser—the same one you use on your desktop. But after the novelty of loading sites optimized for a 17″ LCD wears off, you begin to appreciate a nicely designed mobile-optimized site.

And some of this obviously applies to owners of Blackberry and other smartphones as well.

OK – so while we’re at the topic – a few announcements caught our eye recently.

First, we had Batchbook announcing view-only support for iPhone and Blackberry, Palm and Windows Mobile. This is a really, really good step in the right direction but obviously, I can’t wait to be able add my contacts and edit my tasks as well.

Then, a few days ago, Pipelinedeals announced a slick looking version of their simple CRM tool for the iPhone only and Oprius has announced mobile support as well – although without much detail and without an ETA.

** Update – as this post went live, PipelineDeals let us know their iPhone app is now available. **

These are the first few – I am hopeful that more sales contact managers will follow. If you know of other tools that offer optimized support for handhelds and smartphone such as Blackberry or iPhone, let us know – we’re working on a list.