You might not want to carry a mobile phone after throwing your laptop, charger and a spare battery into your travel bag as you head out of the door. You might not feel the need of a mobile phone so much then but there are a number of reasons to rely more on your iPhone for basic business tasks. Tasks include anything right from grabbing data from your company’s computer to managing Web sites, viewing and editing or saving Word or Excel files.

iPhone can be much more than just a gaming phone, it can be a powerful business tool as well. With the up gradation of iPhone to iPhone 3GS, the handset gains better security, improved real time e-mail delivery and pleasing features for both business and IT users.

iPhone is one phone which can be used to manage your eBay storefront, help you to keep a track of invoices, log your mileage, you name it and you will have an app for that. We were able to collect few best business apps that the iPhone has to offer. So the next time you want to break from work you know what to carry with you to keep you entertained and connected at the same time and keep your huge ultraportable laptop behind.

iTerminal – Publisher: AppNinjas

Cost: Free (plus account per transaction fees)

Fee Processing Method

How easy it will be if we can get a mobile app for accepting credit card payments. iTerminal is the right answer for it. It allows you to accept credit card payments wherever your business takes you. To use iTerminal you may have to pay $25 per month for an account to the firm and each transaction will again cost you 30 cents plus 2.29 percent of the total. Quite an expensive application though.

iTerminal works via Wi-Fi and 3G, it verifies credit card numbers as soon as you feed them and also gives you an instant feedback whether the charges got approved or declined. The app supports all major credit cards including Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. Apart from the fees mentioned above, iTerminal app is a free app without any service charges or any contract or termination fees. This makes this application ideal for businesses that have never accepted credit cards before. As the app is tied up with the authorize.net service you may have to sign up with them first to obtain the iTerminal service. Another advantage of the app is that you can use one merchant account across multiple iPhones.

The only drawback is that the app works only with U.S based merchants and hence if you are planning to do business outside America you might want to try a more expensive Credit Card Terminal.

Encamp – Publisher: Alexander Batalov

Cost: $9.99

Best for Project management

Most of the businesses are relying on Basecamp app as their project management and collaboration tool. Various applications offer to bring desktop Basecamp’s functionality to the iPhone lately; Encamp stands out as the fastest and most flexible iPhone Basecamp app among the other apps.

Encamp provides access to all of Basecamp’s core functionalities such as projects, messages, to-do lists and milestones (an interface which helps loading information quickly, even over EDGE). The Encamp dashboard shows the latest activity overview whereas the project tab displays all your active and archived projects. With the latest updates you can also view files attached to your Basecamp projects, such as PDF and Office documents, images, etc. Encamp always requires an internet connect to access your Basecamp data as it does not store the project data on your iPhone.

FlightTrack Pro – Publisher: Mobiata

Cost: $9.99

Travel Tracker

Delay in flights, botched reservations, annoying last minute gate changes this is what every frequent flier must have experienced. The FlightTrack Pro app check FAA airport delays and closures, airport arrival times and temperature and it also track your flights across the globe.

This is not all, FlightTrackPro will also check for your gate numbers and flight cancellations, and search alternative schedules. For each flight, enthusiasts can view the aircraft type, speed and altitude.

All you have to do is forward your airline confirmation e-mail to plans@tripit.com to get started with FlightTrack Pro app. The rest is taken care of by the app and your flight itinerary will automatically appear in your FlightTrack Pro account. A cheaper ($4.99) and more basic version of flightTrack is also available for less-frequent fliers.

mbPointer – Publisher: Haw-Yuan Yang

Cost: $2.99

Presentation Accessory

Looking for PowerPoint Presentation pointer then mbPointer is just right app for the slideshow. mbPointer works with Microsoft PowerPoint (2003/2007/Mac 2008) irrespective of your OS, it can be Windows XP/Vista or Mac. All you need to do is to install the free companion receiver application to get mbPointer working on your computer. mbPointer will then connect to your PC via Wi-Fi and acts as a remote control for your slideshow. mbPointer is not just a pointer or a PowerPoint remote, it also allows your iPhone to serve as a regular touchpad for your PC. It makes you do all mouse movements, including scrolling and middle-button clicking with your finger on a virtual pad.

 Analytics App – Publisher: Inblosam

Cost: $5.99

Web site Tracker

This app best suits any website owner or blogger. Now keeping a tab on traffic of your site will not be a desktop job anymore. The best desktop tool for this purpose is Google Analytics and the iPhone brings you Analytics App. The app is brought to you by Inblosam and gives you access to a wide range of Google Analytics reports on your iPhone.

Getting started with Analytics App is as easy as entering your Google account credentials. It offers 47 different types of reports in a neatly organized interface, including custom reports for multiple accounts. It is Simple and efficient and also highlights “Today” reports, shows the traffic statistics for the day without you having to struggle with date ranges.

LinkedIn – Publisher: LinkedIn

Cost: Free

Networking and Contact Management

LinkedIn is a useful Web service tool for many people. The LinkedIn iPhone app is a mini version of the LinkedIn. For the beginners, the app helps you get rid of business cards and overcome printed resumes. The ultimate social network for professionals straight from your iPhone means you no longer have to swap business cards with people — you can just add each other on LinkedIn, on the spot without worrying about losing the business card or a valuable contact.

LinkedIn iPhone also allows you to view your entire network, send and receive updates so that others will know where you are and what you are doing.

Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite – Publisher: Quickoffice

Cost: $12.99 (on sale)

For Document viewing/ editing

It’s a fact that iPhone doesn’t get along too well with Microsoft Office documents. The iPhone allows you to read a Word document sent to you via e-mail but it will not allow you to edit it. Quickoffice for iPhone fixes this major shortcoming. It provides a complete suite where you can view, edit and exchange Microsoft Word and Excel files. Quickoffice Files ($0.99 on sale, offered separately) allows you to mount your iPhone as a wireless drive via Wi-Fi and also has a file-sharing feature that lets you e-mail files directly from your iPhone.

If the whole Quickoffice for iPhone suite sounds a bit expensive to you then you might as well want to consider individual Quickword or Quicksheet applications which are on sale for $4.99 each. Alternatively, the cheaper Documents 2 ($3.99) is also an all-in-one mobile office suite but with fewer features.

ClockIn – Publisher: Return7

Cost: $1.99 (on sale)

Time Tracker

If you work as a freelances then keeping a track of time might get difficult with stacks of time sheets and paperwork to manage. ClockIn is one smart app which will allow you to monitor the time you spend on a project and among multiple clients. With only few taps you can punch in the in and out time, and have the app track your shifts (even if you close the app, it remembers whether you punched in or out). The current shift will always be displayed on the top and you can also filter reports based on client’s name.

ClockIn helps you in managing multiple clients and stores their names, Websites and email addresses. If you want to export your hours spent on a project, ClockIn uses HTML or CSV (Microsoft Excel compatible) format and sends the information as an attachment to an e-mail message.

If you want an app for personal time-keeping you might want to try time Manager Pro ($0.99), which will help you keep a track the time you send on reading, exercising, working.

eBay Mobile – Publisher: eBay

Cost: Free

Sales management

If you run an eBay storefront or even sell items occasionally, the eBay Mobile iPhone app will come in handy. You can check items, place bids as well as answer buyer’s questions with this app.

You can also place the pictures you have taken on auction using eBay as eBay says improvements are on the way and you can also process payments. eBay Mobile will be great if combined with eBay Profit Calculator app ($0.99) which helps you to determine your estimated total profit after eBay’s fees, based on the type of auction, the category, and your prices.

Evernote – Publisher: Evernote

Cost: Free

Productivity

It helps you keep a track of everything that happens in your life. It helps you gather notes, voice memos, ideas or snapshots on your iPhone. It not only helps gathering but it also enable you to sync them with your computer. Userful app for creative minds, helps in organizing your ideas and also very easy to review later. The best part about Evernote is the harmonious synchronization it provides, as it adds all of your iPhone notes and items to the service’s Web version as well as to its PC and Mac applications. Evernote also offers voice-recording module and takes advantage of the iPhone’s camera to snap photos of the things you want to remember.