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copied!<blockquote> <p>Both of my programs are more for business users, (one is only useful for C.P.A.s).</p> </blockquote> <p>If you have users, <strong>ask them what phones they use</strong>.</p> <blockquote> <p>Most users seem to be religious about their mobile decision, so oral conversations leave me more confused then enlightened.</p> </blockquote> <p>Then don't measure by quality-of-conversation. Measure by raw counts, or raw counts weighted by likely upsell (i.e., long-time users of your apps who have been paying for upgrades and maintenance have a more proven track record of giving you money than would somebody who bought your app yesterday).</p> <p>Then, once you know what the strongest smartphone platforms are <em>among your users</em>, you can decide how best to tackle one or more of them.</p> <blockquote> <p>I would need to learn the relevant languages and IDEs - my coding to date has been almost all web based (PHP, JS, Actionscript, etc. Some ASPX).</p> </blockquote> <p>Then perhaps stick with that. The only reasons you truly need a native app are because you want to run disconnected (and with HTML5, that'll even be covered) or if you want to do things that cannot be accomplished via a mobile Web browser (e.g., integrate with other on-device apps in Android).</p> <blockquote> <p>Palm WebOS - Perhaps this should go first, as it is the only one that offers tools to make my life easy as a web application developer.</p> </blockquote> <p>Nonsense. Well, OK, that IDE I saw some screenshots of was pretty slick, if it shipped (I lost track). But it's not like WebOS is the only Web OS.</p> <p>There are ways to develop local apps for non-WebOS phones that use HTML/CSS/Javascript. <a href="http://phonegap.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">PhoneGap</a> is closest to traditional Web apps AFAICT; <a href="http://www.appcelerator.com/products/titanium-mobile-application-development/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Appcelerator Titanium Mobile</a> is a little strange but also uses those technologies. Both of those let you target Android and iPhone with one set of source code; PhoneGap also lets you ship to Blackberry and eventually to Symbian.</p> <p>Now, particularly for PhoneGap, these will have the feel of mobile Web sites more than they will native apps. That may or may not be a big deal for your users. If nothing else, it would let you get you feet wet in mobile and gauge relative interest, then determine if you need to climb the learning curve on Java or Objective-C.</p> <p>BTW, Maemo is being replaced by Meego, to further your Nokia confusion. :-)</p>

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