iPhone isn’t the new IE6

Rentzsch nails it from another angle.  However, most of your readers don’t own them either!

rentzsch:

Peter-Paul Koch:

We’re doing exactly the same as ten years ago. We now say “iPhone” instead of “IE6,” but otherwise nothing’s changed.

No, wait, there’s one more change: the iPhone has far less mobile market share now than IE6 had desktop share back then.

ppk’s overly-bombastic text unfortunately distracts from his message, but he has an excellent point.

Regrettably he reaches for the almost-always-incorrect stupid/lazy/undiciplined argument, delivering only a cursory glance at the foundational issue:

Web developers should take a look at their sites on a Nokia and a BlackBerry and fix whatever’s wrong. It isn’t that hard to get your hands on a testing device. Just ask around or use PerfectoMobile. (I do not trust emulators, so I don’t recommend their use.)

To his credit, Koch directly acknowledges “Safari iPhone” as the best mobile browser.

It’s no surprise that we, in the profession, would like to carry and use the best. We live and breathe this stuff, and pick up on even the little niceties.

And there’s the rub regarding developing for the non-best mobile devices.

We don’t own them.