RunRev for iPhone and iPod Touch

[Richard Gaskin]

Andres Martinez wrote:

> Sorry Richard, but I disagree.
> 
> I recently read (maybe from this same mailing list) that the iPhone  
> has more penetration than Linux within internet-connected devices. If  
> I remember correctly, measurement was taken from Google visitors.
> 
> If this is correct, the iPhone would be an important platform for  
> RunRev.

I think we're in agreement that the iPhone is an interesting platform, 
and of course there's no disputing hard data like the Linux market share 
stat you noted.

But the question here isn't a technical one, it's a business one, and 
like all such questions it focuses on ROI:

Before Rev was Rev it was MetaCard, and it was born on UNIX, with 
Windows and then Mac added later.  So a *NIX-compatible engine has 
always been around since the beginning.  The efforts with v2.9 to bring 
it up to date for the current Linux window managers are relatively 
trivial; the core of the engine has always run on *NIX.  Very little 
cost involved in Linux support at this time.

Moreover, I hadn't referred to Linux at all.  With mobile devices, the 
most useful comparison is to Windows Mobile.  While the comparison with 
Linux is interesting, it doesn't affect a business decision between 
iPhone and Windows Mobile.

The unknown here is the cost of porting the engine to whatever variant 
of OS X us running the iPhone, relative to the level of effort that 
would be needed to port it to Windows Mobile.  If the cost is favorable 
relative to market share, it's worth doing.  And maybe both are worth 
doing; I have neither the data on Rev's development costs nor the 
Windows Mobile market to make that decision for them, nor would they 
care if I did since I don't work there. :)

But I do know this:  Rev is already on the desktop, and to fully exploit 
the opportunities already before us we really need independent column 
alignment and zero-width columns in fields.  A lot of money is left on 
the table until those two features are in place.

So once we get those I'll happily explore other more exotic 
opportunities.  But in the meantime there's plenty to keep RunRev, and 
us, profitably busy while the mobile market sorts itself out.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Managing Editor, revJournal
  _______________________________________________________
  Rev tips, tutorials and more: http://www.revJournal.com