What about the system being smart enough to know when you are in the building with your phone and automatically allowing access? And then confirmation on the phone screen of what action has taken place or will take place, the possibilities for this are endless, the inspectorates and insurers may have other views, but if that's what the customer wants then it should be available.

Yes id agree. We should be able to use phones like keys. We can shop on them, bank on them, spend money etc. But dare to use it for an alarm / access system.....

they do this in the states,coming over here soon apparently,never seen one but seems a decent bit of kit

http://www.adtpulse.com/home/what-is-pulse/lifestyle-management

That's the thing, HID have just launched SIO smartphone integration with embedded secure technology. see article here http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/taking-access-control-mobile actually they could use this in any device not just a mobile phone, car keys could use it i reckon, this is probably over the top and unless there is an industry standard chip and protocol, this won't fly, but it proves the point.

ideally both. Common functions in the app. ie arm, part set, circuit status, set staus etc. But with a keypad for other functions not included etc.

It's really a matter of what the panel firmware can support. I was thinking of some macro style functions where users would have extra buttons that could be programmed with user defined key sequences. That way you get all the keypad functionality - display Etc, but with the option of a single press giving your particular code/set/unset sequences.