ABBYY (http://www.abbyy.com/cardholder_iphone) has released the ABBYY CardHolder for iPhone, an on-device digital "card case" for capture and archiving and using of business cards.

The application allows iPhone users to work with information on business cards without the need of transferring all contacts directly into the iPhone address book. Users can capture and save contact data they encounter on a daily basis.

With ABBYY’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology and extended language support, CardHolder also enables customers to instantly use contact data from a business card when browsing the captured image on the iPhone screen. They can make a call, send an SMS message or an e-mail right away, according to Katya Solntseva, director of Mobile Products Department at ABBYY.
 
ABBYY CardHolder transfers images of business cards taken with the iPhone camera to an archive with search, sorting and grouping capabilities. The application recognizes contact information on a card (first name, last name, company name, job title, phones, faxes and e-mail addresses) and provides the ability to edit the results, including contact data classification.
 
The application recognizes text in 20 languages, including both monolingual and multilingual business cards. Each image of a photographed business card has touchable buttons for additional functions, so that a user can dial up a phone number, send an e-mail and SMS, or activate any link with a single tap.

The CardHolder also allows the iPhone user to make a back-up copy of recognized images of business cards within its own archive for any reason -- for instance, to transfer stored data to another phone or PC using iTunes synchronization.
 
iPhone users can upgrade ABBYY CardHolder for iPhone with a set of additional capabilities to manage recognized contacts. The upgraded application allows users to choose either the archive, or the iPhone address book (or both at the same time) as a storage place for business cards and provides an instant search for information about new contacts across mapping services and popular social and business networks such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The upgrade can be purchased from within the application.
 
ABBYY CardHolder for iPhone is available via the Apple App Store. Supported interface languages are English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Russian. Supported devices include the iPhone 3GS and 4 (OS 3.1 or later) with autofocus cameras.