As a long-time fan of both FileMaker & Apple, I’m amazed at the absence of some form of FileMaker for the iPhone.  Some time ago FM discontinued their lame FM Mobile product, but have yet to come out with a replacement.  Considering the relationship with Apple and FileMaker, I would have thought it would be a natural fit…. an elegant database “of the people” on the ultimate “smartphone of the people”. But no such luck.  I’d love to hear from anyone in the know of FileMaker’s plans in this area (maybe a super-secret project underway)?

For years I’ve created my own database solutions to make my work or life easier, and now that I have an iPhone I really want to create a version of my solutions that would work on iPhone.  Tough luck for me.  There is some good news… I’ve been folowing the development of an iPhone application called FMTouch.  It lets you sync your FM DB onto the iPhone and interact with records.  Although this is being rapidly developed with superb support from the developer, it’s still a really early stage product, and (for me anyway) has some deal-breaker limitations.

I’m not a cocoa or Objective C developer, so no matter how user-friendly the iPhone SDK may be (read “developer-friendly”) it’s not for the average (or even advanced) FM developer or hobbyist.  So the choices I’m left with are make due with an FMTouch solution, or enlist the help of an iPhone developer. Stay tuned.