WebIS Inc's. head honcho came out a few weeks ago, responding to a Twitter question, stating very boldly that they too have no immediate plans to develop their popular PIM client, Pocket Informant, for Windows Phone 7:
At the moment we do not expect to support Windows Phone 7. Its simply missing too much foundational for us. It could be done, but we'd hit a dead end at version 1.00 and it would be slower than people would like due to having to write all the recurrence/calendar code in C# without a good backend to help speed things up (like on BB).So I'd like to make it official. Based on the current beta Windows Phone 7 SDK, we will not be making a Pocket Informant for Windows Phone 7.
His reasoning comes down to what others have said: access to native code and limitations on the current API environment. They could make a PI application, but he suspects it would be slow and lacking in major features/integration with the OS. However, like others, once the OS matures and/or sales end up being really good, they'll reconsider.
All of this comes on the footsteps of Mozilla and Skype essentially saying the same thing. While unfortunate, lets not forget a couple of things: Mozilla failed to deliver a usable browser after two-years of development, Skype's WinMo client was really never that good and Pocket Informant has always been a giant, slow, heaping mess (with a ton of features that some swore by).
Maybe we're just being flippant, but some of us won't be missing some of these companies' mobile offerings all that much, judging from their past performance. Case in point, Alex came out nearly 4 weeks ago with this announcement. Who noticed? That's not to say we don't wish them luck, we certainly do, but in the end, sometimes you have to make some breaks and let a new-class of developers step up and innovate.
Are we being too harsh? Comment!
[via Information Week]
