Updated Meebo Released For iPhone Users

Today we received news that the folks behind Meebo, the very popular Web-based IM client, released an updated website for iPhone users to enjoy. While the company did in fact announce an iPhone-friendly version of its instant messaging client shortly after the official debut of Apple’s handheld, the update is being regarded by numerous bloggers as the development that should’ve been made available from the start.

Apple has no doubt caused a sort of ruckus among a niche of customers frustrated with the company’s refusal to deliver an SDK for third-party software makers and for failing to offer with the US$500-600 package so much as an IM client of its own. Since it’s public release, owners of the device have had to make do solely with email and SMS correspondence. (The horror!) Despite Apple’s known development of a desktop-based IM client, iChat, the public has yet to see anything of a mobile version of the application.

Those familiar with Meebo, however, now have a stellar Web-based option to satiate their cravings for instant messages. The new Meebo for iPhone does away with the original miniaturized layout built for the small screen, which more or less replicated the desktop version of the utility. Instead, Meebo users are presented with a simple (granted, it’s got some nice bubbly Web 2.0 accoutrements that the average person craves nowadays), alphabetized “smart” buddy list, which, wonderfully enough, manages to keep active conversations atop the column. This makes for less scrolling, faster referral to ongoing conversations.

The biggest issue to be had at the moment with Meebo for iPhone – one which I don’t believe the developers of the mini utility will be able to fix the way Apple’s handheld multitasks at present – is the automatic sign-off that occurs if a conversation within the client is interrupted with a telephone call (or if one presses the device’s “Home” button to perform a different task, like shuffling through a music playlist).

If this issue is fixed, I would quite confidently dub Meebo is a fine IM client for iPhone users, one that leaves absolutely no need for a standalone, localized iChat-like application.

That is, until mobile video conferencing becomes a compelling option in the US. Currently, mobile networks most likely cannot supply enough bandwidth to millions of handsets to maintain smooth video chat sessions.

For the moment, Meebo does the trick. If you’ve got an iPhone of your own, don’t hesitate to try it out for yourself. And be sure to let us know how it performs for you in a real world setting (a.k.a., less a WiFi connection). We’d love to hear how EDGE handles the job.

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