What??? I wasn't raging!

Quite simply, the iPhone OS is currently the definitive mobile app platform for Skyrates' biggest demographic. CNet news puts Apple's smartphone market share at nearly 11% as of the end of May 2009 based on handset sales. Other reports note a steady gain in Apple's mobile market share despite the current economy. In fact, this article highlights Apple's success as other mobile hardware producers struggle. Nokia and Sony-Ericsson have owned the smartphone market for years. Apple has delivered a product that delivers the right mix of technology at a low cost, and they've applied their famous UI magic to it. Its success should come as no surprise.

That said, it's not for everyone. More advanced users generally want a more responsive interface than even the best touchscreens can deliver. RIM and HTC are capitalizing on this: RIM is launching new QWERTY hardware after the Storm, and the list of electronics manufacturers enlisting HTC to design and/or build their phones is truly impressive. Still, touchscreens are appealing to the average consumer for a variety of reasons and the average consumer is usually who phone companies target. Smartphones are still a niche.

Except for the iPhone. With a major carrier offering contract prices and a diversified computer manufacturer maintaining development and support the iPhone was pretty much a shoe-in. It offers a great experience out of the box, and App Store and jailbreak software give it myriad uses and integrate it into daily life. Isn't that the point of a smartphone? Developing for the iPhone isn't selling out, it's good business (never mind the fact that the App Store doesn't demand any sort of exclusivity from its vendors).

Finally, grow up. I don't care if you're ranting or not. Keep your childish monikers and aggressive sentiments to yourself. If you can't come up with anything rational to say do us all a favor and take a few minutes to order your thoughts. It's pretty clear you dislike the iPhone. Try expressing your reasons, instead of insulting its users.

Oh, ok, next time I post my opinion, I'll run it but you, Sildar, first to get your thoughts on it.

You're perfectly entitled to your opinion. I'd be happy to discuss smartphones with you, since you seem pretty passionate about it. I'd just appreciate it if you expressed your opinion maturely.

that goes for me too.

1: No, am Blackberry geek.

2: $5?

3: Queue setting, mission selection, Blackberry.

No, but i do think its a nice idea

Erm....i dunno seeing as how the game is free it should be like...a dollar at most

No clue

There's an off topic forum for rants is there not?

1) No (but possibly in the future - might finally be time to cave, now that people have tested 3 generations of it for me )

2) ~$5 (but lets be honest, if I had an iphone, and the client existed, I'd pretty much have to have it no matter what was charged)

3) Not sure what "managing queue" would include, but assuming that just means trade and flight:
a) Purchase Planes/Upgrades
b) Use Skill Points
c) Pickup/Drop Missions

Basically everything that might be time sensitive. The main point of having a mobile client is to help people not "miss" important landings because they are out and about. Thus, I think that time sensitive actions should be priority features for a mobile client.

Fex

1) nope, no iphone for me.

2) I guess $5 or less.

3) in decreasing order of importance:
1) set flight and trade queues
2) select missions
3) conduct other transactions (buying planes, guns, etc)
4) ability to receive announcements (such as "server going down in 30 minutes, should be half an hour" and the like.) Yes, I know that's a radio function, and unlikely to ever show up in that form on a lightweight client, but I'm blue-skying it here.

Also, I'd rather see a generic thin client as opposed to an iphone app. It'd be useful to folks who have non-Apple smartphones, older netbooks, ancient computers, and low-bandwidth connections. That said, so long as the development is an "and" process and not an "either/or" choice...

Quite simply, that means that 89% of the smartphones in use are NOT iPhones. But they all support Java. And even tons of phones that aren't quite smartphones support java.

I can has Java applet ?

I highly agree with this. It would probably be easier to do than an iPhone app, and it would be much more inclusive.

But much more difficult to deliver and monetize. The App Store makes it quite simple and does all the payment arrangements.

I'll have to agree 11% of another % of mobile devices (a group which most people don't have anyway) probably isn't that great a target audience. A generic PDA/whatever type application seems much better in my idea.

Still not gonna happen. Now that I'm actually having to develop for smartphones, I can tell you that you can't just crap out a universal app. Even a java one.

A web based client that resorts to drop bars and radio buttons rather than the full flash app would be the closest you're gonna get.

It wouldn't be universal, but a J2ME app would have the highest percentage of devices which would support it, I think.

Also, we can do a lot more a lot nicer with html/js/css these days, so don't be so quick to dismiss it.