Which Phone To Develop For?

Rob MacKenzie writes "I have to decide on a mobile phone to develop for. We're building a house with some automation built in, and we want the mobile phone to be able to control certain aspects of it, and retrieve information on what's going on in the house. Our choices are the usual suspects: Apple's IPhone, RIM's Blackberry, Nokia's line (Symbian), any Android phone we can get in Canada, J2ME generic app, or a Web-based UI we would interact with in the phone's browser. What would you choose if you had to go with one? Which exact model? We will be buying a few to develop for, so price is a bit of an issue."

Comments

Windows Mobile

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't go wrong with MS

Re:Because you're locked in

[SQLGuru]

Plus, if you are already a .NET developer, the learning curve is almost nil. The number of phones is still large (and, if coded right, is just a recompile to run on things like netbooks and MIDs)......and you can make a desktop version, too.

Layne

PalmOS

[RomulusNR]

It's the granddaddy of PDA OS and it's making a comeback.

I said it's making a comeback, dammit.

Grr.

Re:Because you're locked in

[i.of.the.storm]

Eh, the mods must be crazy. Why is this modded funny?

Western Electric 500 Series

[John Hasler]

Solid and reliable, if a bit lacking in features.

Which audience is more likely to buy a phone app?

[aaandre]

Apple users are well-trained to pay premium for everything, from the iphone accessories to the software applications.

I'd go for the well-paying techno-lusting, in-love-with their device user base.

While the bberry is highly addictive, it's used almost exclusively for the simple tasks of email/calendar/phone.

May I interest you in developing a $10,000 application which will display a message saying "I am filthy rich and you are my bitch!" on said device?

Good luck!

Re:Because you're locked in

[Tubal-Cain]

Eh, the mods must be crazy.

You must be new here.

Re:Because you're locked in

[i.of.the.storm]

Says the guy with the UID 30% bigger than mine. But seriously, what? The guy made a valid point, and he gets modded funny? Also, wtf I got modded funny? Smartphones are serious business people.

Incidentally, I've been noticing that "Iceweasel for Windows" link in your sig every now and then, what's really the point of using "completely free" software on an unfree OS? Not trying to start a flamewar or anything, but I don't really see the point of Iceweasel in the first place, and IceWeasel on Windows even less.