Pentaho Releases iPhone BI Application

Pentaho has introduced an iPhone application that can navigate content in the company's business intelligence software over the Web.

In releasing the iPhone BI extension, Pentaho joins Oracle, Salesforce and other vendors in betting that the 3G iPhone, which Apple made available on Friday, will eventually be supported on corporate networks. Apple is offering an iPhone development kit for building applications that can run directly on the device's operating system.

Pentaho built the latest offering on the Web-based user interface architecture the vendor has had for a couple of years. The iPhone application was developed using the iUI project, which is currently hosted on Google Code.

The software can navigate through interactive reports and dashboards, as well as integrate BI functionality with other features of the smartphone, such as voice calling, e-mail and text messaging, Pentaho said.

Pentaho launched version 1.7 of its Open BI Suite this year. The software along with the iPhone extension released last week are available through an open-source model. The latter, along with configuration instructions, is available for download on Pentaho's Web site.

While the Apple marketing machine is in overdrive promoting its latest media player-smartphone hybrid, the iPhone is a distant second in the U.S. smartphone market. Research In Motion's BlackBerry held a commanding 41% share in the fourth quarter of 2007, compared to 28% for the iPhone, according to research firm Canalys. IPhone use, however, is growing rapid. The original version released in June 2007 quickly surpassed Microsoft's Windows Mobile, which had a 21% share of the U.S. smartphone market at the end of last year.