Safari maks the iPhone the Smartphone of Choice

You've probably heard the hubbub about Apple choosing to only allow web based applications to be developed for the iPhone. A lot of developers are up in arms about this. I don't get it. Yes, there are some limitations. But in the long run, this was the right decision for Apple to make.

Take this article, Will Safari Make iPhone The Smartphone Of Choice In Business?, for instance. It points out that Business Intelligence developers need only build a web front-end for their systems to provide analytics to the iPhone. Imagine what a relief this is to the code-lazy BI world. They only have to hire a bunch of cheap web-developers and POOF they can now add analytics for mobile users.

It's a good point. Imagine how long it would take for the BI industry to offer mobile analytics if it had to develop their own Object-C applications for the iPhone. It would probably never happen.