Technovangelism

Why won’t Apple make a tablet that is just like a bigger iPod Touch? Ask Steve Ballmer. The experience for developing for the iPhone is so awesome compared to other phones because there is only one screen size and resolution. Removing that part of the equation will place the iPhone on par with its Android and Blackberry competitors. One screen size across every device isn’t the only competitive advantage the iPhone and iPod Touch have, but is it worth it to find out exactly how important it is?

At JavaOne this year, a new design tool (similar to Expression Blend) for JavaFX was demoed and the developer showed off how easily you could change the view to match several different cell phone or desktop resolutions. I could feel the groaning as other developers in the room began to imagine themselves trying to develop like this. It looked like one of the most painful experiences possible (yes, even worse than making your site look perfect in IE6). I’m sure Apple could come up with some fantastic design tool that would be the best multi-resolution design tool in the market. It might even make life easier, or should I say “less difficult,” but it won’t fix the underlying problem.

Don’t expect to see the rumored tablet unless it runs normal OS X. Apple has made enough poor decisions already (with the App Store at least), that it doesn’t need to make any more and ruin a great development experience.