iPhone: Web Design For A Niche Market

Right now, while the browser wars are slowing to a faint rumble with the acceptance of standards-based XHTML, a new warfront is warming up on mobile devices.

Take the iPhone mobile Safari browser.  While Apple (I am a fan of their products, owning an iPhone, a macbook pro and an iMac) supports newer standards like the ever evolving (and pending) HTML 5 market recommendations, they have also seeded a number of unique non-standard techniques for ensuring a website works best within the paradigm of their proprietary device.

Enter: Tutorial on designing and developing sites for the iPhone. Click the icon below and get your read on!

This tutorial explains how to use proprietary safari mobile javascript to present an alternative layout to your site when the iphone is oriented horizontally or vertically.  It also outlines a number of design standards often found in the iPhone "app" paradigm, if you want your site to act like an iPhone application.

Personally, while I love my iPhone, I am also a Flash designer + developer and since mobile safari doesn't seem to be designed to integrate with any non-Apple plugin-style iPhone apps, I don't really have a lot of respect for that browser experience.  Who really wants to go back to the 1990s where the world had to take a limited peak at the internet through a goofy AOL browser!?

But you might have an employer or client who wants to build a site (in Drupal, static HTML, or .NET / PHP/ ColdFusion) that accomodates or even targets iPhone users.  In that case, this is one more tool for your web superhero belt.