SharePoint 2010 access from iPad/iPhone

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 supports several modern, standards based; XHTML 1.0 compliant browsers such as Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.6 and Safari 4.x. SharePoint and IPad do not mix well together. SharePoint is fundamentally intranet desktop oriented software, it's not built for mobile, and it certainly not built for internet social online collaboration. There are 2 options available to access SharePoint from iPad/iPhone.

1. Access via Browser like Safari 
2. Third party client applications

There are several partners and 3rd party developers that provide mobile access solutions for SharePoint 2010 content, including Apple iPhone/iPad, through client applications. You can find many of these in the Apple iPhone/iPad App Store. This paper will address the only the first option.

Access for SharePoint

Out of the box SharePoint 2010 provides the ability to render mobile views of the default SharePoint templates. These mobile views are usually acceptable for an intranet or extranet deployment but they are not well suited for a public facing site. Just like any other project, the key to a successful implementation is planning. When building public facing SharePoint 2010 web sites you have complete flexibility in determining what HTML, style sheets and ECMAScript is used for rendering the site. A designer and developer can use basic web standards or they can utilize the latest HTML 5 constructs. Building a public facing web site with SharePoint that can be easily viewed on mobile devices requires a good understanding of mobile device capabilities.