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Contacts appl with Company info?

svartbjorn

Lurker
Jan 16, 2010
4
0
I am considering buying an Andoid phone, and I have checked out the features on my wife's Hero. On such a business phone. I expect a Contacts/PIM that can organize all my business contacts by their companies. I would say that Company as a PIM entry is the most elementary feature of a PIM. Today I have a Windows phone (WM5), which has a great PIM for business contacts, with email address, business phone, switchboard phone, web address, company name, business address, private address, etc, etc. On Andoid Market I find nothing similar. It is unbelievable! All I find is a Group feature, which is something completely different. This is a show stopper for me. How can Android work for business people? Does anyone know of a PIM with full business card features?
 
You have to remember that the Android phonebook works with Google's contact list. This list is very basic. Groupings is the way Google handles the contacts.

Also, the Android platform is still very young, while WM is quite mature, so the application base is more solid. I, too, am waiting for a very good contact manager, one that will handle birthdays and anniversaries, for example. Right now, the Market has many good and innovative applications, but not many a re really business-oriented. The few contact manager out there deal with Facebook and Twitter, and the other social networks. They appeal to the general public, but they're not very good for business.
 
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The contact manager that comes with the phone does have fields for anniversaries, birthdays (part of the basic settings) and company names (you can add fields). BUT, you can't list your contacts by company name! That is why I can't see how Android can sell to business people. This simply doesn't work! I work with dozens of companies and hundreds of business contacts. To be able to list all contacts by company name is a mandatory feature in business. How can business people buy this thing? Android is new, I know, but there aren't even 3rd parties solutions out there. I strongly want Android as my next phone, but I simply have to wait until there is a solution for business contacts. It would be very interesting if there are Android business people out there who can tell me how they handle their business contacts.
 
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What version of Android are you running?

I have Android 1.6, and I have not seen any field for Birthday and Anniversary...

Ok, I just re-read your first post, and you are referring to your wife's Hero. This one runs Android 1.5 with SenseUI, whish has HTC's Contact Manager, not the stock one from Android.

I'd like to point out that there ARE third party alternatives, but not business oriented, as I mentioned my previous post. However, there may be less available options for Android 1.5. This may why you don't see any in the Market.
 
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aContacts in the Market is able to sort by Organization. I'm not sure it's exactly what you want, but it's free software so you can check it out easily.

I've been using it for a while and it's got some very nice features (T9 for searching contacts), and some shortcomings ("edit" happens in the stock contacts app).

It's here:
chart


aContacts v1.3.3 Application for Android | Communication
 
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Thank you for your suggestion. Yes, aContacts can work. Unfortunately the Setting options do not include "Default Display by Organization" as an option. What I don't like is the use of just a symbol in front of the different fields. Not necessarily obvious what the meaning is. The layout doesn't look very professional. The Contacts that comes with the phone has list options along the bottom (All, Favorites, Groups, Facebook). It would have been complete if there were a field to list by Company. I guess there will be more solutions available, but at least we have a solution with aContacts. Great, thank you!
 
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@jimdroid: aContacts has been my contact manager ever since I discovered it on the Market. IMHO it is better than the Android app, but I really would like Birthday and Anniversary management. Now that Google handle those fields, would it be possible to sync them with my Google Account instead of storing them in the notes somewhere, like the HTC app does?

Thanks!

Nicolas Racine
 
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The contact manager that comes with the phone does have fields for anniversaries, birthdays (part of the basic settings) and company names (you can add fields). BUT, you can't list your contacts by company name! That is why I can't see how Android can sell to business people. This simply doesn't work! I work with dozens of companies and hundreds of business contacts. To be able to list all contacts by company name is a mandatory feature in business. How can business people buy this thing? Android is new, I know, but there aren't even 3rd parties solutions out there. I strongly want Android as my next phone, but I simply have to wait until there is a solution for business contacts. It would be very interesting if there are Android business people out there who can tell me how they handle their business contacts.

There already is a process to handle this. Groups - you have 33 contacts that all work at Snargle n' Fargle Inc put them in a group called Snargle n' Fargle Inc and then look at just that group.

Grab your wifes Hero, pull up the people application, see that icon with 3 people on it, push it, now you should see some groups , you can view all the members of that group or even send mass text/emails to members in that group. You can even choose which groups to sync - it's the weekend and you don't want to see your business groups - uncheck them from the sync option and they disappear until rechecked.
 
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There already is a process to handle this. Groups - you have 33 contacts that all work at Snargle n' Fargle Inc put them in a group called Snargle n' Fargle Inc and then look at just that group.

Yes, it's one solution, but I don't think it's the best. The organisation has already been specified once in the contact form. The application should be able to sort using this info. A contact sheet is a database, why enter the same info twice to use it in two different features?

I understand that's how it works now, but it should not have to be like this. Same for first and last name. Every contact application I have used (and I've tried a few) gave the ability to sort by first and last name. Normally, it takes the form of a "Search as" where you specify the order.

As I have said in my first post, I know very well that Android is still in its infancy, that other applications will be introduced as it matures. For me the business world will not take Android seriously as long as there are those few serious shortcomings still remains:
- A good contact manager
- A good calendar
- A good task manager (gTask is very, very basic)
- the ability to copy-paste any text in any application.

Regards,

Nicolas Racine
 
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Working backwards here.

Copy and paste is a little lacking - but it's way better then the Pre I'll tell you that.
Try Astrid for tasks - best task manager I have ever used on any platform.
Calendar works okay for me - I really don't know what more a person would need from it besides possibly showing tasks.
Contacts works amazing for me - but I suppose that's a personal preference.

Extra features such as sorting are always nice - so I support having them don't get me wrong on that. What would be REALLY nice and negate the need for sorting would be if the contact search would search more then just the contact name. If you could deep search the contact then you could search for company name and the sort as feature would be pointless. On a computer accessing Google contacts you can deep search like this.

Also I am not entirely sure if Google is attempting to attract enterprise customers. I am sure they wouldn't mind - but it's probably not their target market. Smart phone usage is expanding rapidly and sooner or later enterprise users will be a small segment of the market.
 
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Working backwards here.

Copy and paste is a little lacking - but it's way better then the Pre I'll tell you that.
Try Astrid for tasks - best task manager I have ever used on any platform.
Calendar works okay for me - I really don't know what more a person would need from it besides possibly showing tasks.
Contacts works amazing for me - but I suppose that's a personal preference.

Extra features such as sorting are always nice - so I support having them don't get me wrong on that. What would be REALLY nice and negate the need for sorting would be if the contact search would search more then just the contact name. If you could deep search the contact then you could search for company name and the sort as feature would be pointless. On a computer accessing Google contacts you can deep search like this.

Also I am not entirely sure if Google is attempting to attract enterprise customers. I am sure they wouldn't mind - but it's probably not their target market. Smart phone usage is expanding rapidly and sooner or later enterprise users will be a small segment of the market.

Astrid is very good, but IMHO the Web IU of Remember the Milk is better, especially for recurring tasks. that is what I would like on Android.

Not being able to integrate tasks, birthdays and anniversaries in the calendar was a surprise for me. It's a given on WM, which I have used for many years. I understand that Google has added those not so long ago, but I would expect Android to handle them better than that.

As for the business users, I will have to disagree here. This is the biggest market. Ask any Linux afficionado what Linux need to really beat Microsoft. They will all answer the same thing: get in the businesses. This is where the money is, this is where the biggest pool of users is. Big corporations buy thousands of computers for their employees, not one or two. Same with smartphones. Why is BlackBerry so big? They went for corporate users from the start. Now BlackBerry = business. If Google is not interested in corporate users, which I doubt, I think they should reconsider their "business" plan. :)

I am not saying that Android should copy BlackBerry. Far from it. Android is a great OS, with lots of potential. However, I think that, for now, the market is lacking business-oriented developers.

Regards,

Nicolas Racine
 
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As for the business users, I will have to disagree here. This is the biggest market. Ask any Linux afficionado what Linux need to really beat Microsoft. They will all answer the same thing: get in the businesses. This is where the money is, this is where the biggest pool of users is. Big corporations buy thousands of computers for their employees, not one or two. Same with smartphones. Why is BlackBerry so big? They went for corporate users from the start. Now BlackBerry = business. If Google is not interested in corporate users, which I doubt, I think they should reconsider their "business" plan. :)

Well here is a problem - everyone is looking at things wrong. Linux really doesn't need to beat anything - there is no corporation backing "Linux" that stands to win or loose anything. Now there are corporations backing their version of Linux - but they are in just as much competition with other distributions of Linux as they are with Microsoft.

When we talk about Google and Android a lot is forgotten. The money I spent on my Hero did not go to Google - it went to HTC. There is no licensing fees to use Android (there might before branding but that's not the point). If I had the means to develop a piece of hardware I could grab a cup of orange juice, put on some pants, download Android 2.1 put it on my device, and sell a billion units without ever even talking to Google.

Take a look around Google's site - they don't make it easy to pay them. Gmail is free, calendar is free, contacts is free, search is free, docs, picasa, blogger, google voice, google maps, google earth, chrome, mobile sync, wave, news, reader, feed burner, and a lot more free free free FREE. So how in the heck did they rack in 21.8 billion dollars in revenue in 2008? Advertisements. So you are right Google's target market for it's profit line is business customers - business customers who want to advertise.

Lot's of business don't use Google services to run their operations, Google doesn't seem to mind. Their goal is to get those businesses to pay them money to display ads to consumers. So why should Google build a product and give it away for free in hopes that it might make a small dent in RIM and Microsofts strangle hold on business customers? Remember Google doesn't gain much from those sales - the hardware manufacture does. Most of RIM's and Microsofts customers already use Google services on their phones anyways. So what's the point?
 
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Well here is a problem - everyone is looking at things wrong. Linux really doesn't need to beat anything - there is no corporation backing "Linux" that stands to win or loose anything. Now there are corporations backing their version of Linux - but they are in just as much competition with other distributions of Linux as they are with Microsoft.

When we talk about Google and Android a lot is forgotten. The money I spent on my Hero did not go to Google - it went to HTC. There is no licensing fees to use Android (there might before branding but that's not the point). If I had the means to develop a piece of hardware I could grab a cup of orange juice, put on some pants, download Android 2.1 put it on my device, and sell a billion units without ever even talking to Google.

Take a look around Google's site - they don't make it easy to pay them. Gmail is free, calendar is free, contacts is free, search is free, docs, picasa, blogger, google voice, google maps, google earth, chrome, mobile sync, wave, news, reader, feed burner, and a lot more free free free FREE. So how in the heck did they rack in 21.8 billion dollars in revenue in 2008? Advertisements. So you are right Google's target market for it's profit line is business customers - business customers who want to advertise.

Lot's of business don't use Google services to run their operations, Google doesn't seem to mind. Their goal is to get those businesses to pay them money to display ads to consumers. So why should Google build a product and give it away for free in hopes that it might make a small dent in RIM and Microsofts strangle hold on business customers? Remember Google doesn't gain much from those sales - the hardware manufacture does. Most of RIM's and Microsofts customers already use Google services on their phones anyways. So what's the point?

I get that Google's business model is advertising. No question there. So if I follow your reasoning, Android is just another mean to get people to buy advertising space? Seems like a lot of trouble for not much. If Android has been developed to get people to use more theirs product, like Gmail, etc. It would have been easier to just offer applications for existing mobile OS. I would have welcomed a Google application for WM. There was no need to build a whole OS just for that. Moreover, Why continue to develop it. If there is no point, why not leave Android as version 1.5, provide a few patch to correct a few things that needed fixing, and leave it at that? What's the point? :)

Any "creator" wants its work to be admired, used, enjoyed by as many people as possible. Since the corporate world is a big part of our way of life (like it or not... i'm not sure I do), it seems logical to do a few things to get them to like your product.

Also, as I said in my previous post, "Far from it. Android is a great OS, with lots of potential. However, I think that, for now, the market is lacking business-oriented developers." When I write about developers, I do not necessarily mean Google's developers. I mean anyone creating programs for the Android OS, like jimdroid, who makes aContact. Many developers sell their programs for a living, or aspire to anyways, so maybe it would be a good idea to start looking towards the needs of the corporate people. "Fill a need" is the basis of selling.

This is a wheel that must be started by someone. 'If you build it, they will come." If they come, you can build more, etc. Maybe a few, well-placed, well designed business app could get new people to be interested in Android. I doubt that a few dozen fart apps and soundboards will get Android many new fans, but give me a great contact manager, and I am willing to wait a lot longer to see where Android is going. Really, if there is no point, when my contract is up, I will trade my Magic for another phone running an OS that cares about my needs. Simple as that.

Regards,

Nicolas Racine
 
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