Archive for October 20, 2009

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Steven Frank on the iPhone

Unfortunately:

iPhone competitors have less reason than ever to provide a stellar experience for Mac desktop users, as the iPhone has that angle sewn up. I expect future non-Apple smartphones to scale back Mac desktop support even further than they already do, as it will cost them a fortune to provide an experience that’s even half as good as the iPhone provides with the iTunes/MobileMe ecosystem.

The first time around, Palm’s Mac software was a late, crummy Windows port. This time, they’re just trying to piggyback off iTunes.

Frank expands on Marco Arment’s point:

In other words, you have the Windows market, and the Mac market, but within the app store itself. And you’d better be damn sure which one you’re targeting, and set pricing and development schedule accordingly.