I suppose I'm a little behind the times, and maybe hindsight has left both of the authors here with a little change of perspective, but I was kind of bothered by a couple different blog posts on the same subject, namely that iPhone-specific or iPhone-optimized sites are tantamount to "this page best viewed in" warnings of the 90s.

First, there's CSS whiz Eric Meyer being absolutely, unequivocally, against optimization for a single platform. I get red flags going off all over the place when I see anything absolute - to put it another way, "absolutes are always wrong ;) - and this is no exception. The problem with his position is that is contains a lot of assumptions (and no actual evidence: I've never seen a site give the warnings he claims to have seen), not the least of which involves the "lockout of other users."

Now, if there is an iPhone-optimized site out there that locks out other users from the same content, point me there. A standardista's pledge of total inclusivity is all well and fine, but an iPhone-based site does not negate that inclusion. It provides an additional alternative for someone with a specific device. Comparing that to requiring users to be at a certain screen resolution or running a certain desktop browser? Off base. It's not the same. Don't get me wrong, I straight up learned CSS from Meyer's books, but this is the same guy who insisted that reverse-chronological blog post order is somehow "broken."

Second post is on a Wired blog, comparing the iPhone to IE4. Well, that's even more ludicrous, although a couple half-decent points are raised.

"In essence, Apple has forced a third tier of websites on the world by failing to provide developers with an alternative means of creating applications on the iPhone."

That I'll say is partially true, but I don't think the SDK is going to stop iPhone-optimized sites. Why am I going to waste valuable storage space on my iPhone to download (for instance) an RSS reader that has to connect to the internet anyway, when Bloglines provides me a browser-based experience tailored to my device?

And if I want that tailored experience, goddammit I should be allowed to have it. Saying you feel excluded when Bloglines provides a fine desktop interface and a great mobile interface in addition to the iPhone one makes little sense. You're not being excluded. And that third tier is hardly "forced" anyway.

In essence, here's my thing: if a content or web app provider gives you a full desktop experience, and a mobile experience, why not a third? Google, Bloglines, 37Signals, tons of people are doing exactly that and I love it. I understand that you don't want to see the "standard" mobile version suffer, but if it doesn't, what's the harm?

Your policy of inclusion looks pretty non-inclusive if I can't have the optimal experience with my device just because you're afraid of "locking out" non-iPhone users from, uh .... iPhone Battleship.