iPhone Integration With CRM Applications Will Be The Next Trend in Mobile CRM

The growth in the market for the iPhone is increasing at a tremendous rate as discussed in this excerpt from Apple’s press release:

Apple once again took Wall Street by surprise when it reported second quarter earnings that far exceeded any expectations of analysts and industry watchers. Revenues came in nearly $1.5 billion over what Wall Street forecast and earnings were 90 cents over. Growth in Mac sales was impressive – at 33 percent – and iPod Touch sales were even better, up 63 percent from a year ago.

But the darling of the earnings call on Tuesday was the iPhone, which saw a whopping 131 percent year-over-year growth in sales and 124 percent jump in revenue. Its numbers exceeded the records set during the previous quarter, a holiday quarter. And sales were also up more than three times the 41 percent that IDC projected for overall smartphone market growth for the quarter.

Last week, I conducted a Webinar with update software in which I discussed “How You Can Benefit From Mobile CRM”.   I had previously foresaw that  the increase in usage of the iPhone will lead to an increase in integration of the iPhone with CRM applications. During this Webinar, update software demonstrated their CRM integration with the iPhone.  The update CRM user can access much of the functionality within the update CRM application on the iPhone such as his/her contact, account and sales records.   The user can additionally view and set up appointments on his/her calendar.

With full access to the Internet becoming more and more prevalent in the current marketplace, I predict that  nearly all or the entire functionality of a software vendor’s CRM applications will be available in mobile devices such as the iPhone and BlackBerry in a few years.   Access to CRM applications will be very useful for a company’s sales and staff members when they are visiting their clients or conducting business away from the office.