For the past 2 years I have been hearing about how many more RIM devices there are than iPhone. Or "don't forget about Nokia smart phones". Well I am here right now to tell you what to do. Here is your guide to deciding which platforms to build your app for.

What type of app do you have?

Do you have a business app? Maybe a travel app? Maybe a Game? Maybe a productivity app?

Guess what, it doesn't matter the answer is the same. Here is the order:

1. iPhone
2. Android
3. BlackBerry (if you must)
4. WebOS

Don't be afraid to swap 3 and 4 either, if you can whip out a WebOS app for a short term win, it might be worth it. Furthermore don't be afraid to skip all the platforms until you have your product just right. Wait until it becomes embarrassing that you don't have Android before you build it.

Right now I would gage interest at all platforms nearly equal 10:1 iPhone to any other platform ratio in the United States. So, once 10% of your active user base becomes a significant number for your business, then start building for Android.

Where are you building your app?

If your main target area is outside the united states this list may change, but I doubt it. Make sure you know your audience. But it is about more than just market share. Make sure that people actually get apps on that phone. What are the expectations, for instance, iPhone users expect to be able to do anything, so they will go to the app store assuming to find a solution to their "problem".

But my manager/CEO/Paycheck signer carries a BlackBerry

That is bad luck, although, I gather, not that unlikely. This is a tough spot. He is likely has a BlackBerry for 1 of 2 reasons. Keyboard addiction or misinformation, "BlackBerry is more secure", sure it is. If it is for one of these two reasons, you will have to hope to reason with him on the bottom line. I would try the following talking points.

Talking points for why you shouldn't build a BlackBerry app

1. BlackBerry is not a App platform. Users generally site email as the most important thing on their BlackBerry.
2. Device diversion is a very expensive problem. 5+ screen resolutions, 4 carriers, multiple input types "trackpad" vs touch.
3. Forward compatibility is weak. Plan on having minor to major tweaks on every new device that comes out, about 4 per year.
4. Many users devices are managed by their company without the ability to install apps.

Do we even need an app?

I hope this type of thinking doesn't catch on, because some day I might need a job. Given that the mobile web is getting pretty freaking awesome (css3, html5, offline access), you need to ask yourself why you want an app? Is it for the app store marketing? If so, I think you will have a pretty bad cold start problem. With 200K+ apps in the iPhone app store, it is getting increasingly difficult to get noticed. Consider web, still no approval process. That is not to say there aren't valid reasons for having an app, marketing just isn't one of them.

TL;DR

1. Build iPhone first no matter what
2. Don't build for BlackBerry unless you are forced.
3. Consider mobile web

According to the WSJ Apple is going to charge 1 cent each time an ad is served and 2 dollars each time an ad is tapped. I haven't ever considered advertising as a monetization strategy for my apps, but if the prices are known up front, it becomes more attractive. I don't have to worry quite as much about shady back room pricing of ads. I already know my split is going to be 60% of the revenue, and if I can guess my click through rates I will be able to gauge how much money I could make off an app. I haven't really figured out if Apple is going to share the 1 cent it gets for serving the ad or just the 2 dollars for a tap.

I am sure they will be able to launch with a pretty big network of advertisers, which should make fill rates fairly high. In the long run, I think there remains some doubt if they will be able to stay full. If they are able to stay full, I think they are the most attractive ad network, because of the openness of how much they are charging and what your split will be.

This, of course, is all presuposing that everyone will get the same deal. I don't think that is realistic with cyclical advertising budgets. End of year/month/quarter "money burns" always drive prices of ads up. The open, written down pricing model is the antithesis of the way advertising "works" now. Advertisers like to target certain demographics and are willing to pay extra to get to the people with money. So, I just can't imagine Apple turning down their money extra money. What I am saying is, I am going to take a wait and see approach, even if there are big financial advantages to being there on launch day.

A reasonable iPad sales guess I have heard is between 2-3 million this year. But my desire for the iPad to succeed makes me want to believe Oceanhouse Media in the latest Mobile Orchard podcast. They thought the number could be as high as 6 million. I hope they are right, but who knows.

Developers will likely build iPad apps for the same reasons they build iPhone apps, ease of distribution and access to users. But, you are kidding yourself if you think you will be able to charge a higher price point simply because the screen is bigger. No matter how many well written blog posts state that it isn't a big iPhone, users will still see it that way. I think you can charge more for a "good" application. But that is true on the iPhone as well. It is possible that you will be able to build better applications, because you have more screen space. For instance, Apple would have been hard pressed to make a great version of Keynote on the iPhone, because there is just not a lot of room for editing, and typing notes.

Either way I am excited for the iPad to come out. I hope it shakes up the netbook/mobile computing industry like the iPhone did the phone industry.

Considering about 50% of my news feed has been dominated by Apple's announcement of a new piece of consumer hardware, called the iPad, I doubt there is anyway you missed it. Other than the obviously terrible name, I think it will be an amazing product. I believe that both consumers and businesses will find a place for this product.

There are a few apps that I would love to see immediately:

• Something for mocking UI like Mockingbird or Balsamiq. I would pay good money for an app that let me mock with an intuitive multi-touch interface.
• A flowcharting app with a slideshow mode and projector support so you can review assumptions in a meeting.
• An app that turns it into a 500$ touch pad for desktop Macs that supports all the gestures the Macbook pro does, ideally over bluetooth.

My personal iPhone app DCRails [app store link] was approved this morning! In yesterday's post, I talked about the fact that there was likely 2 app store review queues. Now I feel like that is not the case. If you account for the weekend, DCRails took the same amount of time as my "good" app to get approved, the "good" app actually spent a little more time in review, which is the oposite of what I would have expected. Yesterday, I thought that they were hurrying through "good" apps with the assumption that they had the most to lose. But, I guess it makes sense that they would spend more time reviewing more heavily downloaded apps since there will be more egg on Apple's face if a blatent violation gets out in an app that has 4 million users.

Like I said, DCRails is approved it is a great upgrade. It now shows street level exit data on Google Maps. It also persists your last stop for 10 minutes so you can check the same stop frequently.

If you know anyone in DC who commutes regularily on the metro let me know and I will send them a promo code.

I can't prove any of this, but I feel like there are at least two different app review queues.

On my "good" app, frequent updates, lots of users, last week it only took 24 hours to go from submission to "in review" and then about 36 hours from in review to "ready for purchace". Which is amazing! It gives me confidence that I can actually push changes on a reasonable schedule.

On the other hand I have my "toy" project that only gets updated every 6 months or so, few users is taking forever to get reviewed. It was submitted late on a Friday night, 3.5 days after the "good" app. And it finally flipped to "in review" a few minutes ago, that is 4.5 days or 3.5 days longer than the "good" app. So I will give them a pass on the weekend, lets say it was submitted Monday morning that is still 1.5 days worse.

I know I shouldn't be bitching about how long it takes. I should either be bitching about the fact that there is a review process at all. I guess if you have to have an undemocratic system, such as the app store, I actually don't mind that some people get treated better. I think only a few percent of the apps are actually useful, so if apple has some secret list that is cool by me. Or even if it goes by number of downloads you have had, in theory you have the most to lose by putting out a shoddy update.

The only thing I would like to change is you get 2 critical bug fix releases per year per app. That way when you eff something up badly you can release it immeadiately. Apple would still get to review it after the fact, and if they noticed an app abusing it, they could just delist that app. I know this idea will never happen because it is a slippery slope to a "review later" policy for every app and apple doesn't want to be in that world, no way no how.