Enterprise Geeks demo SAP ABAP server on iPhone

In what many are calling a technology breakthrough, the Enterprise Geeks have managed to shoehorn an SAP ABAP server onto the iPhone. Per the blurbs:

There were some obvious technical challenges to getting a piece of software that was designed for 64-bit memory architecture and multiple CPUs to run in the considerably smaller hardware of the iPhone. When asked about these technical challenges, the Enterprise Geeks responded with the following. “There were plenty of problems squeezing the thing onto the iPhone.  The biggest was probably the fact that the database size alone is nearly 12Gb.  That was a bit of a problem for a device that potentially has only 8Gb of storage. So we had to cut out some of the features.  For instance there was no room for any eye candy.  So we cut out the Signature and Enjoy designs and went back to the classic battleship grey Windows 3.1 mode only. We also had to cut out SE80, the new ABAP editor, Web Dynpro ABAP, and lot of other stuff.  What didn’t we cut? Well, there is still command line based editing and we of course left in the ABAP powered Matrix Screen Saver.  We would love to tell you how well the system runs on the iPhone, but to be honest those damn icons are just too small for the touch screen interface of the iPhone and we keep exiting the program when we try to save.”

It is a pity the WebDynPro client had to go because in recent times that has been viewed as a far superior UI to the much maligned SAP GUI. However, it is understood that the Geeks will have a working client by the weekend.

Asked why they'd chosen iPhone over the ubiquitous Blackberry, one of the Geeks said: "We're in the business of doing cool stuff. Robert Scoble said that iPhone was represented by more than 35% of recent attendees at a Salesforce.com gig so it kinda makes sense to us."

Asked whether they have further plans to perhaps bring FICO - the financial application - onto iPhone, the Geeks said they were thinking more about adding some Business Suite 7 extensions, particularly in the area of supply chain optimization.

Taking such a step fits well with SAP's general thinking about putting applications onto mobile devices. One does have to wonder the impact this will have on the SAP ecosystem given recent announcements with Sybase and my skepticism about this move. Having said that, one Geek did say that they are hoping to port the server to the Nokia platforms as this will provide SAP with an opportunity to make a solid entrance into the as yet largely untapped African market. Asked when this might happen, the Geeks were a little more circumspect. "SAPPHIRE's coming up in May so hopefully we'll have a fringe meeting announcement about this. Probably at the Blogger's Corner." My understanding is this will be a live webcast so watch this space.

The Geeks will have some licensing issues to contend with. While SAP is keen to help developers bring new ideas to market, there are restrictions on what can be done with SAP server developer licenses. Asked whether this will impact further development, the Geeks said: "We're working on that." Hardly a satisfactory answer but then given the pace at which these folk are moving, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that SAP Ventures are knocking on the door.

Asked for a reaction from SAP, a spokesperson who preferred to remain anonymous said: "It's good to see our community is active in developing new things. I'm sure that product development will want to get an early view."

Vinnie Mirchandani welcomed the move: "It's good to see iPhone being leveraged in this way. I'm assuming that like some Oracle applications, this will go into the iPhone catalog at zero cost but we'll have to wait and see what SAP's response is on the maintenance support side of things."

PS - it's April Fool's Day. There may be no truth whatsoever in this story.