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Aro Mobile, a mobile communications startup backed by Microsoft's Paul Allen, made waves back in October when it emerged after three years in stealth as a suite of interconnected applications for Android smartphones. Installed as a single download from the Android Market, Aro places icons on user's homescreens: Phone, Email, Browser, Calendar, Contacts and Messaging. These are the core "PIM" (personal information manager) applications on mobile devices.

Because of Android's relative openness, Aro is able to completely integrate its PIM solution onto the Android mobile platform. But now, as the company prepares to launch its iPhone version, compromises had to be made. This begs the question: can innovation around core apps even work on iPhone?

Chandler is an open source, cross platform PIM (Personal Information Manager) product that has been in development since 2001, but has yet to get to a 1.0 version. It is being built by the Open Source Applications Foundation (OSAF) and has been funded to date by Mitch Kapor, who is famous for founding the first popular spreadsheet app Lotus 123.

Earlier this month, OSAF announced that Mitch Kapor was stepping down from the OSAF board and will stop funding Chandler by the end of 2008. This was viewed in some quarters as signaling the death of Chandler.