Quit Shouting & Listen (not to me)

I am tired of all the technical preaching and predictions going on right now. Especially tired of the finger pointing and name calling that a few have resorted to. You can keep the funny images coming... those are worth a chuckle. But for the rest, put down the pitch fork, step off the soap box, and listen. And when I say listen... I'm not saying listen to me.

Listen to your clients. Listen to your clients' consumers. What do they want?

Do the consumers want to sit back and watch/read or do they want to jump in and interact? Do they want to be able to access sites from any device or are they happy accessing some from home and others on the go? Do they expect them to run the same on all devices or are they understanding if performance or features are cut? Are they willing to seek out and download a version of the site to get it to work? Are they willing to pay for a version of the site to get it to work?

Are your clients willing to pay extra to have multiple versions of their site? If not, will they be sacrificing experience or market penetration? Ex: Should the client resort to text so it can reach everyone or should they keep their immersive experience and ignore a percentage of the market?

The consumers have the power. It does not matter how Flash Devs feel about Apple's dictatorship. It does not matter how Apple-fans feel about plug-in performance. Even though these two groups are very vocal, especially of late, the only thing that really matters is what is important to the consumers.