Better Gmail and Calendar for the iPhone

Posted by jonathan at 4:08pm EST on 04/10/2009

Earlier this week, Google launched enhanced versions of both the Gmail app and the Calendar app for the iPhone.

Google is going to the extra mile for Android phones, as I expect they would, while they are keep legacy support for the iPhone to specific versions. “Please note, these web-based mobile products are only available on iPhone OS 2.2.1 or higher and on all Android-powered devices.”

Google gave a brief explanation of why they are focusing on web apps instead of platform apps. “So you may be asking, “Why web apps?” Well, from a product perspective, web apps allow us to iterate quickly, so users benefit because they will see new features appear in the browser without having to download anything.” I completely agree with their reasoning. It provides much more agile development as you don’t have to keep getting approval for new apps for new versions. Overall, the primary factor is exactly that, faster development through testing. See what people are actually using and quickly respond.

Watch the video about it.