Stephen Withers
Monday, 18 August 2008 10:58
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
There's no Mac version of QuickBooks in Australia, so I wouldn't be too worried about integration with the desktop version, but the ability to back up my own data in a form that could be loaded into QuickBooks for Windows would be a must - I'm not ready to commit irreversibly to cloud-based accounting at this stage!
Another potentially useful idea would be the integration of Plaxo and similar "stay in touch" services with MobileMe. I'm not a huge fan of Plaxo (if you are a user and you ask me to update my details, you'd better include your current contact information or I'll ignore you) but I can see its benefits.
I know Plaxo already has an online address book and offers synchronisation with Address Book on Mac OS X, but that's adding complexity. I don't want a separate Plaxo account, and I don't want to have to do anything extra beyond signing up and letting MobileMe Sync do its thing.
If you feel the same way, a MobileMe-hosted version of Plaxo could fit the bill.
A fair few people have been complaining about Apple's decision to drop .Mac's iCards from MobileMe, so there's another opportunity for third party developers. Integrate well-designed electronic greeting cards with the MobileMe address book for email addresses and the calendar for birthdays and anniversaries, and there you are.
I'm not inclined to give away any more suggestions for how turning MobileMe into an application platform could play out, but you're welcome to post your idea in our forum. You can do that on
page three.
