Ok I had this idea while I was posting a response on the iPhoneblog.com (http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2008/08/12/are-you-using-your-iphone-apps/). The blog topic was about the extended - or lack thereof - use of most of the apps. The blog suggested that most applications people download are seldom used after a short period of time, and that besides a few notable exceptions (Facebook, Twitter, etc), most applications are only useful or interesting in a very limited sense and are not actually used long term.
I surmised that most of the successful apps (which would be used long term) are built on a pre-existing architecture and that's why they are successful in terms of their lifetime of being used regularly by users. One example I cited was the Facebook app, which without its pre-existing architecture (eg the Facebook community) is basically a nothing application.
I then started to think of other examples, and one such example of a successful app built on a pre-existing architecture was the WordPress application. I don't know about you, but I have a blog and for that reason the WP application is one of my most used non-stock apps. This seems to agree with my idea about the pre-existing architecture, since without the actual WordPress blog and its administrative tools the app would simply not exist.
Now, to get to the point of why I'm posting in this thread. During my response to this blog I thought about the WP app, and then I wondered if the same concept could be translated to another well-used (especially by us) pre-existing architecture: the forum. Specifically the vBulletin forum - as it seems to be the most ubiquitous forum used today. I think we can all agree that using forums with Safari in their native layout is tiresome at best on the iPhone. Imagine an app that made it easy to login to multiple forums, to view the latest posts, or to categorically view/search the site as you would now, only scaled to a more manageable iPhone friendly size.
So in a long-winded way (sorry), I'm proposing that someone with coding skills far superior to my own, consider the possibility of having an application where users can "Add a Forum," input their login details, and have the iPhone log into the site, and transmit/translate the XHTML, PHP, and CSS data into a manageable, user-friendly iPhone app. Is it possible? I have no idea. I hope so, though. It would bring a whole new level of usability to my iPhone, and I know it would be one of the applications I would NOT neglect soon after download.
I surmised that most of the successful apps (which would be used long term) are built on a pre-existing architecture and that's why they are successful in terms of their lifetime of being used regularly by users. One example I cited was the Facebook app, which without its pre-existing architecture (eg the Facebook community) is basically a nothing application.
I then started to think of other examples, and one such example of a successful app built on a pre-existing architecture was the WordPress application. I don't know about you, but I have a blog and for that reason the WP application is one of my most used non-stock apps. This seems to agree with my idea about the pre-existing architecture, since without the actual WordPress blog and its administrative tools the app would simply not exist.
Now, to get to the point of why I'm posting in this thread. During my response to this blog I thought about the WP app, and then I wondered if the same concept could be translated to another well-used (especially by us) pre-existing architecture: the forum. Specifically the vBulletin forum - as it seems to be the most ubiquitous forum used today. I think we can all agree that using forums with Safari in their native layout is tiresome at best on the iPhone. Imagine an app that made it easy to login to multiple forums, to view the latest posts, or to categorically view/search the site as you would now, only scaled to a more manageable iPhone friendly size.
So in a long-winded way (sorry), I'm proposing that someone with coding skills far superior to my own, consider the possibility of having an application where users can "Add a Forum," input their login details, and have the iPhone log into the site, and transmit/translate the XHTML, PHP, and CSS data into a manageable, user-friendly iPhone app. Is it possible? I have no idea. I hope so, though. It would bring a whole new level of usability to my iPhone, and I know it would be one of the applications I would NOT neglect soon after download.