Cloud storage provider Box.net’s iPad app gets a makeover

Box.net chief executive Aaron Levie might have a soft spot for Android, but he has to go where the money is. So his company is unveiling a slew of new features for its iPad application today before it gets to work on pumping up its Android application.

The newest version of Box.net’s iPad application features a projection mode, which lets Box.net users connect their iPads to a display and project whatever is on their iPad on the new screen. That can include anything from additional monitors to projectors. The feature requires an iPad connection cable to connect the iPad directly to a secondary display.

Box.net’s latest version of its iPad app also features air printing for documents stored online. Apple enabled wireless printing for its devices in one of its recent iPhone operating system updates. The feature lets iPhone and iPad users print documents on any wi-fi connected printer that’s on the same network without having to install any additional drivers. But a number of companies like HP have already released third-party apps that enabled wi-fi printing.

Aside from that, Box.net is including a locking feature and a way to log onto multiple enterprise accounts with a single screen name and password through the application. Since Box.net typically logs in automatically, the application now has a password lock like the iPad’s normal password lock function. That means once a user locks the device, they have to type in a four-digit password to unlock it an access the application.

Box.net decided to focus on the iPad because it has such a wide distribution — at least for now, Levie said. He said tablets running Google’s mobile operating system Android will eventually take over the enterprise tablet market – especially once the latest version of Android, dubbed Honeycomb, hits the market. But until then, the iPad has proved to be quite popular. iPad users have downloaded the Box.net application more than 250,000 times since it launched.

But that doesn’t mean Box.net is completely ignoring Android. Box.net currently has an Android application that Android users have downloaded more than 70,000 since it launched in the fourth quarter last year. Box.net is also working with Samsung, the manufacturer of the Galaxy Tab, to pre-load the Box.net application on its newest tablets. Levie also said there’s a certain appeal to working with the Android team when developing an application.

“The whole Android team is really accessible and loves getting down into the stuff you’re working on,” Levie said. “Which is totally awesome because you can get some really great feedback.”

But as “awesome” as it is to work with the Android team, Levie said that there’s a certain elegance to how Apple has rolled out its app development ecosystem. Since there is just one tablet and one phone, developers don’t have to fret about form factors and how big screens will be. So developers can make iPad and iPhone applications much more quickly than they can develop Android applications, he said.

There aren’t any plans for a Box.net application for some of the other tablet operating systems just yet despite a slew of new devices on the way. Research in Motion hopes to make a splash in the enterprise tablet space with its PlayBook tablet, which runs on the BlackBerry operating system. But Research in Motion already plans to run Android applications on the PlayBook — so it might be moot to make a BlackBerry tablet Box.net application.

Nokia just jumped into the pool with Microsoft and plans to release phones running the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system. Hewlett-Packard also recently unveiled a new tablet and several smartphones running on Palm’s WebOS mobile operating system. Both are good targets, but it’s too early to tell whether they’ll have any kind of traction, Levie said. So for the time being, Box.net is going to stick with the iPad and Android.