Army officials from the services' Research, Development and Engineering Command say they want Apple to teach them how to create intuitive applications, as part of an ongoing effort to place smart, handheld devices loaded with applications into the hands of soldiers.

The effort, called Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications, will run at least four pilot programs to study the effectiveness of digital applications in training.

"Apple technologies offer unique and proven solutions with intuitive designs that allow users to learn quickly without a training manual," said Ron Szymanski, a CSDA computer scientist at the Communications-Electronics Research Development and Engineering Center at the Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command. Szymanski and other RDECOM officials talked with Apple officials in Cupertino earlier this month, according to an army.mil article.

"The Army would like to leverage Apple's experience when designing military applications," Szymanski added. CERDEC is developing two applications for the iPhone: COIN Collector, a counter-insurgency information collection tool, and MilSpace, a combined planning and social networking environment.

The Army is moving away from "big-green-box solutions" in the field in favor more adaptable solutions, said Maj. Gen Nickolas Justice, RDECOM commanding general.

For more:
- read the army.mil article
- listen to a March 30 address by Army CIO Lt. Gen Jeffery Sorenson on how Army software development should be more like Apple

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