Recently, the makers of Quickoffice released their iPhone port, and I believe it will have major implications for the iPhone/iPod Touch platform. It is one of the first productivity tools that is not a glorified browser. Importantly, Quickoffice allows users to create and save local versions of the file, meaning that Internet access is not required to access any features.
I have not yet spent very much time with the platform, but it has already paid for itself as I have been able to quickly edit documents and return them to their sender. You can access e-mail attachments and then send the altered files back to the sender, a huge victory for the iPhone platform.
The Quickoffice program shows proof of concept for powerful applications that exist independently of browsers, and I look forward to seeing what is possible with the relaxed limitations of the 3.0 software platform. Once I can connect a Bluetooth keyboard to the iPhone, I will be much more comfortable leaving laptops at home, even for short trips. The Quickoffice platform is the first piece of software that should rattle RIM and Palm, since it brings the iPhone up to par with the editing capabilities of the more established business platforms. Obvious features like spell-check and formatting are missing for now, but hopefully some friendly competition will bring these all to market quickly.
