Just fyi, Apple has loosened their requirements for third party software development tools for the iPhone.

Here is an announcement on Novell's website for MonoTouch.

http://monotouch.net/

Russ Brown (Using C#2010/SQL Server 2008)

Thanks for the explanation, it does make sense now. I think you would need to outsource an iPad developer to help you out with this project since the sale will also depend on how good the products are shown on the iPad as well as building the app to take the order.



That is what I would do, outsource somebody to help out with the initial development and teaching of Objective C so you can take over in the future. FYI I took a free training/seminar with Mr. Julio Barros from E-String Technologies and it looked pretty good to me even though I have not done anything yet with the iPhone.



Good luck and please, let us know how the project came out.

Edhy Rijo

Hi Edhy.

The app is a Sales Person App, so that when a Sales Guy arrives at a shop, he can whip out the IPAD , show the jazzy catalogue (The buisness is in the Cosmetics area ) and take an order. Thses orders are then downloaded to our back office system for further processing, despatching , Invoicing etc. The reps currently have Notebooks to do this, and they also carry around a very thick brocure, which contains a lot of Glossy Pictures . Currentlty , very few of the reps bring in the Noteboks into the shops as they have to carry around the Brochure as well and end up entering the orders each night when they go home and then upload the orders. The plan is to replace the Notebook and the Brochures  with something like an IPAD , where as well as taking the orders, it will also serve as a 'Glossy' selling tool, with all the pictures available for display.

It cannot be a 'Connected' online app as lots of the areas that the shops are in , would not have a good Broadband connection .

My proposal would be to develop a SF App on the 'IPAD' or 'IPad replacement to take the Orders and display the pictures etc. These then would be uploaded to our back offcie system in a similar way to the way it is currently being done

  

1- If I may ask, what will your application do in an iPad?



2- if it is disconnected why would you used SF?



iPhone/iPad have memory and resources limitations and Objective C helps you in that regard to keep up within the limits.

Edhy Rijo

Hi Edhy.

This would be a disconnected app. One of the directors has got himself an IPAD and really likes the look and feel of it.. I must say I am inclined to agree with him.. its a sleek piece of hardware.. they are in a type of buisnes where 'Image' rules so an IPAD would cetainly look the part. I think myself, if there was a similar piece of hardware (i.e. Excellent graphics, same size weight as an IPAD) that ran Windows 7, it would do the job, but this does not seem to exist (yet at any rate)

Hi Gerard,



Even though I have not done any project on iPhone/iPad yet, it is in my list to do.



For what I have seen in a short seminar for iPhone, Objective C is not that difficult. Be very careful with any product outside Apple's domain, since I read couple of months ago that some applications build for Apple device which was not created with Objective C may not be able to run on the device. Don't take my comment for granted since I am not following everything that happens with Apple yet, so just check them out before you commit to any 3rd party product.



Also, if all you need is to provide the look and feel of iPhone/iPad to a .NET ASP application you could try the ComponentOne Studio iPhone classes which will let you build an ASP site with the look and feel of iPhone. Of course that would be a web application and not a local Objective C application installed in the iPhone. Also as far as I know, all iPhone applications MUST be installed via the AppStore, even if they will be free of charge.

Edhy Rijo

We have been asked by one of our clients to consider developing an application for an IPAD. (This application will just be for the client and wont need to go on sale in the App Store)

I don't partculalrly want to start learning Objective C at this stage (as I am barely getting to grips with C#). There is a product called Monotouch (from Novell)  which claims to allow .net development and then to deploy the app to an IPod / IPAD.

Has anybody used this product , and also is this a runner with StrataFrame ?