The web-based collaboration specialist MindMeister (https://www.mindmeister.com/) announces the acquisition of the iPhone application MindMaker (https://mindmakerapp.com/) as part of its mobile device strategy. MindMeister is the leading collaborative mind mapping application, allowing simultaneous editing of graphical mind maps using just a standard web browser.

“MindMaker started out as a pet project but quickly became one of the leading iPhone apps for mind mapping,” says Melchior Brislinger, developer of MindMaker. “MindMeister’s acquisition brings integration with a premier web-based service and will accelerate the further development of MindMaker.”

MindMaker will be integrated into the MindMeister offering by providing easy access to a user’s online mind maps through the comfort of a native iPhone application. The solution will support graphical views of a user’s mind maps similar to the one in MindMeister’s award-winning web interface. Essential editing functions will be supported on mobile devices as well, with many more features to be added in upcoming releases.

Syncing between the iPhone and the online service will most likely be made available as a Premium feature — that means for paying MindMeister users only — with existing MindMaker customers benefiting from a special discounted upgrade offer.

Mind mapping is popular and fast-growing technique for brainstorming, planning, note taking and structuring thoughts. MindMeister’s mobile application allows for up-to-the-minute updates of shared information from colleagues and friends, no matter where they are. All information is stored in the cloud and readily accessible for just-in-time reviewing.

“iPhone applications are all the rage at the moment, so time-to-market is an obvious issue here,” says Michael Hollauf, co-founder of MindMeister. “Acquiring the excellent MindMaker application helped us speed things up quite a bit in building a MindMeister app as we could start development from a very high level already.”

The new application will be available on the iPhone and the iPod Touch shortly.