The Center for Realtor Technology Web Log (there’s a mouthful) has a Realtor-oriented review of the iPhone:
On the real estate side of things, though, there were a few disappointments. I went to Trulia, Zillow, and Realtor.com. All three had some rendering issues from a missing MAP to elements on web pages covering each other (making filling out a search impossible.) One issue is that one of the sites has their map via Flash, which isn’t yet supported on the iPhone. I visited some of the sites on Safari and Mac and Windows and didn’t have the same rendering issues, but did still have the same missing non-flash map elements. The rendering issue I saw on the iPhone could be a bug in that version that will hopefully be corrected soon. Don’t get me wrong, they were still mostly usable, but it wasn’t as clean an experience as most of the non-real estate sites I’ve visited. It could just be luck on my choices either way.
We’re not ready to make the leap yet, but it seem clear that this device — or a near-term competitor — is inches and hours away from shipping my laptop off to the Museum of Computer History.
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing
Jeff Brown says:
I’ve been away a lot lately and not up on everything you’ve written on the iPhone. Can I access the MLS with it?
July 13, 2007 — 9:25 am
Greg Swann says:
> Can I access the MLS with it?
I’ve only played with it once, at the Apple Store in Las Vegas. I was able to connect with ARMLS and run searches, but I was not able to see a listings page. Not a great test, because MarketLinx/Tempo is a suck-ass vertical market software system. I often have the same problem with my desktop machines. Maybe we’ll go over to the Biltmore tonight and try again. ARMLS works fine with the Safari 3 beta, so, in principle, it should work on the iPhone.
July 13, 2007 — 9:35 am
NM real estate says:
I think that waiting a year or so for apple to get all the bugs out may be the way to go. Look at how much the ipod has evolved in a short time.
July 13, 2007 — 10:10 am
Will Farnsworth says:
The flash problem with the iP may be fixable, but what isn’t fixable is the incredibly slow data transfer speeds on AT&T’s EDGE network. Text based websites have OK loading speeds, but any graphic-intensive sites (and presumably, flash/java sites) take a frustrating amount of time to load if you aren’t on a WiFi network.
My advice is to wait for the 2nd generation iP.
July 13, 2007 — 11:09 am
Greg Swann says:
> My advice is to wait for the 2nd generation iP.
How many customers Verizon have to lose before it goes dancing with Mr. J?
July 13, 2007 — 11:14 am
Robbie says:
My experience w/ Safari on Windows has been disappointing. Why would Safari on the iPhone be any better?
Still, I hope iPhone mania is the kick in the pants, the IE Mobile teams need to develop a good Windows Mobile Browser. Perhaps, Deepfish and Safari will both be better next year.
July 13, 2007 — 11:25 am
Greg Swann says:
Following up on this:
> I was able to connect with ARMLS and run searches, but I was not able to see a listings page.
We played again last night. Since we were in Las Vegas, MarketLinx/Tempo has put in a browser check that looks for Javascript, which means it rejects the iPhone. It tells you to use only MSIE 6/7, but it still works with the Safari 3 beta and Firefox on my iMac.
It looks like the iPhone is short by Javascript and Flash, both software updates, from being a viable laptop killer.
July 14, 2007 — 7:29 am