The iPhone is Internet Explorer 4 all over again 22 Aug 2007

Wired is fed up of the new breed of "iPhone only" websites:

"Facebook, Netvibes and Meebo all launched new iPhone-optimized versions of their sites this week, and all three of them are very nice. But wasn't one of the promises of the iPhone that it offered 'a real web browser'? If that's so, why all the iPhone-optimized sites? And why are these sites being optimized for the iPhone specifically and not just 'mobile optimized?'"

Yep, it seems like the iPhone has created a division in the mobile web - just as Internet Explorer 4 created a division in the "web web" in the 90s, when many developers chose to support this browser at the expense of Netscape Navigator.

What's the problem? Well, it provides web developers with yet another platform to design for (and thus another headache). But, as the "iPhone only" design momentum gathers, it may also mean that we'll see more and more mobile sites that are tailored specifically to the iPhone's unique features - namely, its touch-screen interface. This can't be good for blind users and others with certain accessibility requirements, can it?