No Apps, just Google search for iPhone 3G

Google offered a mobile search app via Apple's new iPhone app store that's received fairly good reviews, but some bloggers are wondering where the real Google Apps are.

While Google offers browser-based Google Apps, such as Google Docs and Gmail, for use on the iPhone, it hasn't gone the path of true native 3G iPhone apps. As blogger Eric Zeman says:

"While the iPhone's Safari browser is no doubt a powerful tool, native applications would be better. Just about every photo-sharing site out there has a new application for the iPhone, including Flickr and PhotoBucket. Google's Picasa? Nowhere to be found. TypePad rolled out its blogging application for the iPhone. Google's Blogger received no such special treatment. There was at least one RSS product available from the App Store, but Google's Reader wasn't one of them. The list could go on."

Keeping Google's cloud-centric view of computing in mind, maybe browser-based apps was the way to go here. But more intriguing, Zeman says, is that it's probably saving its best apps for its own Android platform. So yes, the open-closed phone wars could be getting very interesting very soon.