With all the hype surrounding the iPhone, is it something you really want/need? If you are a real estate professional, maybe not!

The iPhone, while a marvel to look at, simply does not have the feature set a real estate professional needs. Let’s just take one feature for example, electronic lock boxes. Most of the country uses one of two systems. Both of these systems rely on software along with your hardware (phone) to make them work. In both cases the software is only available for the Palm OS or for Windows Mobile, neither of which is available on the iPhone. Having internet access is simply not enough.

Let’s look at one other feature. Internet access is provided by an EDGE connection. Although EDGE is faster than a typical dial-up connection, it is older technology and not anywhere fast enough for streaming any kind of data to your phone. For an explanation of EDGE technology look here.

There are many new phones available today that not only run software available for electronic lock-boxes but also provide Internet access on the faster 3G platform. For an explanation of the 3G platform look here. So, the question remains, ‘Will you iPhone?’ or a better question, ‘Should you iPhone?’