LinkedIn Tailored for the iPhone (
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LinkedIn, Google Apps and other enterprise apps designed for the
iPhone blow holes in the theory that it's just a
consumer gadget.LinkedIn has created an application that lets users on the go tap into their
professional network from any Web-enabled mobile device, especially Apple's
popular iPhone.
Released to open beta Feb. 25, LinkedIn Mobile will let the site's over 19
million users access the service more easily from iPhones and other smart
phones from Nokia, Research In Motion and Palm.
The application comes at a time when millions of users are looking to access
their social and professional networks from any device at any time. Networks
such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn are keen to enable this because it will
lead to greater opportunities to target mobile users with digital ads.
Users who want to try the application can point the browser on their mobile
device to m.linkedin.com, said Brandon Duncan, director of engineering at
LinkedIn.
The plan is to move the majority of the functions of LinkedIn's PC version
to LinkedIn Mobile, but Duncan said he and his team at LinkedIn carefully
picked a few of those features for the beta.
Users will be able to upload photos from their mobile phones just as they
would on LinkedIn's PC service. This has value, Duncan
told eWEEK, because it can help people who have never met find each other
easily at professional events, such as trade shows.
Click here to read about LinkedIn's financial research service.
LinkedIn users will also be able to invite new connections to their network
from their gadgets. Previously, workers on the go had to snag a business card
or an e-mail address, then go home to their PCs and establish a new connection
from there.
Another feature is the ability to view certain network updates from a smart
phone and act on them. For example, users who see a job posting they know would
be a good fit for a colleague could forward the post just as if they were doing
so from a desktop PC.
LinkedIn is growing, adding more than 1 million users per month. Moreover,
mobile Web use is accelerating, due in no small part to the success of the
iPhone. Hence, LinkedIn Mobile is optimized for the iPhone, something LinkedIn made
a priority when it realized that about 2,000 people try to access the original
site from their iPhones each day, the company said.
Such anecdotes blow holes in the theory that the iPhone is just a grand
gadget for consumers.
Enterprise Applications 
