In the past two years, more than 21 million people have purchased Apple iPhones.  Naturally it is inevitable that GIS mobile technology find its way to this popular device. This is GIS for your pocket.  Think of it, since the iPhone is an iPod, an Internet device, and a phone, you could listen to your favorite tunes, access GIS data, send notes from the field, and count calories from your lunch practically at the same time.

During the ESRI UC Plenary, Chris Cappelli, ESRI director of sales, announced that ESRI will support the iPhone as a mobile platform to get maps from ArcGIS Server.  This means that you can use your iPhone to

• Access geographic content from ArcGIS Resource Centers.
• Display maps from your own server or from someone else's server.
• Build your own solution for iPhone using the REST APIs available from ArcGIS Server.
• Configure an application that accesses data directly from the geodatabase on your server.
• Record and share observations from your phone.

In a demonstration displayed on his iPhone, Cappelli brought up a city basemap from ArcGIS Online, and used additional information from a server. This made it possible for him to click on a building location, see a display of information about the building, and a phone number to the building. He clicked the phone number to dial it. He also clicked on an associated e-mail address to send a message.

Next, Cappelli demonstrated the simplicity of recording and sharing observations via the application. Here's his story: "Yesterday I went for a run and saw graffiti sprayed on a building. [He shows the building on the map]. I decided to take a picture of it [he shows his iPhone photo of the dastardly deed] and volunteer the observation in a note back to the city. So I entered a quick title [he types on the touch screen] to the map and associated photograph. I had the option of sharing the geographic note via an e-mail, an SMS (Short Message Service), or sync it directly back to a server [he hits send and smiles happily].

This GIS iPhone application facilitates new connections between government and citizens, or it can be used simply for fun. "Consider the possibilities," said Cappelli. "With this app, you are going to have another way to share your geographic knowledge.  You can bring valuable information to people in your organization. Potentially, you could reach out to an audience of 21 million people."

The ESRI Apple iPhone application will be available for download with the ArcGIS 9.4 release.