Comments for With the iPod Touch, iPhone-Specific Sites Suddenly Seem Smarter

With the iPod Touch, iPhone-Specific Sites Suddenly Seem Smarter

2007-09-05T18:40:11Z

When Apple released the iPhone in June there was a flurry of development from web 2.0 startups as developers worked to create iPhone-specific versions of their applications. There was some question about whether or not creating mobile sites specifically for a single handset -- one which was unlikely to have more than a couple of percentage points of the world cell phone market any time soon -- was a wise way to spend time and money. When I reviewed the iPhone-only social network iRovr, I remarked that the biggest question facing the startup was "whether an iPhone specific social network can gain critical mass."

Today it seems like a lot of developers may have made the right move. At a press even this morning in San Francisco, Apple announced the iPod Touch, which is essentially an iPhone without the phone.

]]> The iPod Touch is an 8/16GB iPod with the huge screen and multi-touch technology that made the iPhone so wowing. But what makes the Touch important for web developers is that it has built-in wifi and includes a full version of Safari. All those iPhone-optimized web sites will now work on the new breed of iPods.

Image from engadget.

The iPod is the most successful portable music player line in history, having sold 110 million devices so far, according to Apple. Even if the current version don't fly off the shelves due to their smallish hard drive size (the regular video iPods also hit 160GB today for $50 less than than iPod Touch at 1/10th the storage size), they're an indication of where the platform is heading. Flash memory will eventually drop in price, and the iPod Touch and iPhone will undoubtedly grow in capacity and become more attractive to iPod devotees.

What that means for web developers is a much larger user base for those iPhone-versions of their web applications. Instead of 1% of the cell phone market, they might end up eventually with access to 70-80% of the MP3 player market -- or a whole bunch more people surfing those iWhatever-optimized web sites.

Conclusion

Last month a report from Forrester Research compared the iPhone and the traditional mobile web. Forrester concluded that the iPhone signaled the end of the mobile web as we know it, while Dave Winer disagreed, saying that the "iPhone view of the web is not optimal for the user."

Richard MacManus took a more even approach, coming to the conclusion that "the iPhone isn't quite a Mobile Web killer just yet." The iPod Touch, however, might be another nail in the coffin of the mobile web, especially given that iPhone-optimized sites take away the ease-of-use advantage of mobile web optimized sites -- and will not be more widely available because of Apple's latest device.

What do you think? Will you be getting an iPod Touch? Does it make sense for developers to be optimizing their sites for Apple's devices? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Update: Our network blog, Last100, has full and comprehensive coverage of today's entire Apple announcement, from the new iPod Touch, to the old iPod Classic, the new Nanos, to the iPhone ringtones and the Starbucks partnership. So be sure to check it out.

Comment from Morgan on 2007-09-05

2007-09-05T19:44:28Z

It's sort of irritating, the big marketing point is that it's a 'real' browser and you can use the web like on your computer. But then everyone eats up the iPhone-optimized versions of sites, or at least news/blogs seem to.

If they're really supposed to be able to use the normal web, I'll let them. If they start to be somewhere above 5% of visitors for me, I'll revisit the issue.

Comment from Evorgleb on 2007-09-05

2007-09-05T22:47:25Z

I just did a post on the new iPods over at Highbrid Nation and I'm pretty excited. I've had my current ipod for over two years and its about time for an update.I wonder what other apps we will see for that TOUCH.

Comment from JulesLt on 2007-09-06

2007-09-06T11:24:33Z

I've ordered one - it's enough of a leap to encourage me to replace my 3rd gen 20Gb iPod in a way that photos, video and larger capacity never did. Even though my library is up round 40Gb, I was tempted by the Nano - after some years I've realised about 1000 tracks really is a mobile 'sweet spot' - having 'everything' on all the time means having as much clutter as accidental serendipity. Getting a Nano felt like spending money for no improvement other than size. Whereas this is the first functionally different iPod since the scrollwheel (or iPhone).

Also, there's a few software solutions (dot.tunes, orb, seeqpod) to allow you to stream files from iTunes at home to iPhone's already, which will presumably work on the iPod. I imagine many of the developed iPhone hacks will also.

My gut feel, based on how long the Apple site was struggling yesterday, is that this is going to be a huge product. I think it's enough to make a lot of existing users upgrade. It's international, so sales are likely to be 5-10x iPhone sales. And all of a sudden, that WebKit engine becomes a whole lot more important again.

As for iPhone apps : Of course you're always going to want to optimise for screen size (not resolution) and of course you may want to optimise for network speed (even 3G lags broadband) but the big improvement is we no longer need to optimise for unsupported tags, JavaScript, etc - well, at least no more than across the desktop browsers. Except that the existing mobile browser market is as fragmented in terms of implementation as the desktop market in the mid 90s. So what do you target? Do you bet on the future ('full standards' mobile browsers like Safari / Opera / etc) given that this is where mobile browsing really starts?

Comment from Steve on 2007-09-06

2007-09-06T14:14:16Z

I think this is an excellent news and a smart move from Apple to introduce the iPhone user interface on an iPod.
In addition it's clearly showing that Apple is committed to get OS X on all the platform it's working on, and not just the Mac. We have now the Apple TV, the iPhone, and now the iPhone touch.
I will not be surprise that Apple's competitors will start looking seriously at the opensource web browser that Safari is using... Many sites are now targeting the iPhone and if competitors want to play on the same feature based, it will be a smart move for them to have a browser that has the same capability of MobileSafari.

Steve
http://inewsonly.com
The first ZUI news aggregator for iPhone (and now iPod touch)

Comment from RustyS on 2007-09-06

2007-09-06T14:16:44Z

I agree with the first commenter.

The whole point of the browser is that you can get the 'normal' web. You don't theoretically need a customized experience. The previous concept of the mobile web (ultra lightweight, text-only sites) is quickly going to fade as network speeds improve and more full-fledged browsers like Opera, Safari and Deepfish become the norm on ALL devices, not just Apple devices.

That being said, I can eventually see the need for some sites to create slimmer versions of their existing designs to accommodate smaller screen sizes. Even surfing with the Wii's Opera browser on a large TV screen can be a bit tedious with all the zooming/panning. With the iPhone/iPod's smaller screen it's even more eye-straining. Still, it's better than more limited options with a text-only experience.

Comment from Erkko on 2007-09-07

2007-09-07T16:56:01Z

Nokia will ship over 400 million phones next year, looking at market potential doesn't that seem like a fairly lucrative target for browser optimized sites...