Storage and collaboration service Box.net has just launched its OpenBox Mobile API, which offers developers the ability to integrate the Box.net platform into their apps.
What this means is that users will have the ability to access their content stored on Box.net within their favorite iPhone applications. So if you use the Quickoffice [iTunes link] application, you can access your documents stored on Box.net, make edits and then e-mail the new copy.
The new API is free for developers -- just sign up for a Box.net and then join the developers program. The iPhone is the first platform being rolled out, but Box.net is also working with Android developers and has plans to bring OpenBox Mobile to BlackBerry and webOS in the future.
The OpenBox Mobile program is a really, really innovative way to get around a lot of the content limitations that exist when trying to create or share content on a mobile device. Rather than having to sync your iPhone and your computer every time you want to update or access a document, you can just use an OpenBox Mobile-compatible application and read and make changes right there.
The possibilities are really intriguing when you consider how useful this could be from a collaboration standpoint. If I'm working on a document with a number of other users, and we're all using Box.net to share and track changes -- I can access the file we're working on, make any edits I see from my iPhone and then my colleagues can access those changes instantly.
Box.net is already working with iPhone developers to add OpenBox Mobile access to apps like iRec Voice Recorder Pro [iTunes link], iThoughts (a mind-mapping app) and JotNot (an image and document archiving application).