Apologies for the length of this, but I feel it important to respond:
I don't think it is a case of "iPhone users thinking they're a cut above the rest". As I said previously, I don't actually own one - and in case you think I'm an Apple fanboy, apart from my iPod I don't own a single Apple product - all my computers are WinXP PCs.
In fact - my current mobile phone is a T-mobile Vario II running - yup, Windows Mobile!
However, the iPhone is an exceedingly capable device, and a couple of factors make it a good platform to develop applications for:
1) The SDK - although it could certainly be improved, many things are very "easy" for developers to accomplish using the SDK.
2) The App store. I've installed WinMob applications on my phone, and it's simply a pain.
You have to find a version which will run (and fit your screen resolution, etc.) on the internet - which is often hard enough - then sync it using ActiveSync, then install it. It simply isn't easy or seamless enough for 95% of people to want to do.
The App store, despite its flaws, makes the process of downloading and installing iPhone apps very, very simple. Simply put, despite the relatively low number of iPhones in existence, if you build a good quality, useful application you will garner a large userbase very, very quickly - something which doesn't happen for 95% of Windows Mobile applications.
3) In the UK at least, the O2 data plan is very good value. A lot of people who aren't on iPhones - myself included - don't have cheap/unlimited data. I try to minimise data browsing! A Windows Mobile application for the site would unlikely be as popular given the variety and costs of various data tariffs!
All of these factors combine to make the iPhone perhaps the most compelling platform to develop mobile applications for at the present time. It's to do with maximum return for a developer's investment of time: there's only one screen resolution/device specification, there's an easy way to get apps onto the device (and market them to the world), and it is easy to develop for.
A couple of other points:
1) You seem to be opposed to iPhone users getting an application because Windows Mobile users won't get one... why?
After all, people are not asking the
site owners to develop the application (and favour one device over another) - this is a suggestion by independent users of the site who would like to develop an iPhone application.
I am sure that if someone was similarly willing to develop a Windows Mobile application which did the same basic thing, they could do so and the presence of an iPhone application would not somehow discriminate against them - because it isn't the
site owners who would be doing the coding work, but end users who want the application.
Look at it another way: for example, if I wanted to build an extension for MS Outlook which would look up numbers from this site, that might be because I use Outlook. It would not stop, or discriminate against, someone doing the same for Thunderbird (or any other application). It would not imply an endorsement of one platform over another by the site owners!
2) "Good on the site owner for making his database private"... based on the rest of your argument, you seem to be saying this simply because it would spite those who wish to develop iPhone applications. But what if someone wanted to build a Windows Mobile (or indeed Symbian) application? A "private database" would be no help for them!
Secondly, the database isn't really "private". After all, you can type in a number and get a result! What it does not have is an API which makes retrieving such data programmatically simple.
It would not be impossible, or even exceedingly difficult, for an iPhone developer (or
any developer for
any platform) to simply "screen-scrape" the output of this site. It may be morally and legally questionable, but it isn't difficult. I think that those who wish to make applications have done exactly the
right thing by contacting the site owners in order to come to a proper formal arrangement, rather than simply screen-scrape and not tell them!
So given all of the above, I fail to understand why you would have such a problem with an independent developer creating an iPhone application for the site. I certainly wouldn't have a problem with someone creating a Symbian application, even though I'm a WinMob user at present!
Back to the topic itself:
I believe that an application would actually drive traffic to the site. Not, perhaps, from mobile devices, but the more people who know about the site through the publicity generated by a good quality application, the more people would visit it from a PC - more advertising revenue on a per-view/per-click basis.
In addition, if a "donation" link was included, perhaps the moneys raised could be split between the developer and the site? I don't see it as a way to make money, but it would probably help cover the data costs generated by the iPhone app's traffic (which would not
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iPhone app (Read 96,999 times)
