The iPad has been out for 5 days now, mine is on its way to Italy too, everyone seems to be happy and satisfied. It’s a great device, no doubt about it. But I can hear the far away voice of those people who haven’t purchased an iPad yet and decided to stick with their iPhones. Waiting for better times (camera, 3G, other random excuses) to come. I can hear this voice, I can hear these people complaining because they fear developers have forgotten about them.

Developers, this one is for you. They are right.

I mean, it’s not like you don’t have to take part to the gold rush in the iPad App Store. Sure you can, and you should. I’m not saying that you don’t have to develop apps for the iPad. I guess the problem is that I’m seeing so many devs completely switching from iPhone to iPad development, and I’m wondering how much can this effectively be a good thing for them, and for us.

Is the iPad gold rush actually any better than the iPhone one? Put simply: are you guys so sure you can jump from one platform to another without risking a) a loss in customers and b) a tremendous loss in time and money? I think the problem lies in the fact that devs think they have to either develop for the iPhone or the iPad. This is wrong.

Let’s delve deeper into this.

The iPhone App Store counts hundreds of thousands of applications and we all know the stories of overnight successes just because of one stupid utility app. Sure, there are also devs like Loren Brichter and Tapulous who put a lot of effort in their applications and now make a living out of them. The point is, we’ve seen so many apps that we’ve gotten used to think we’ll always have new apps. Guess what, with the release of the iPad and the “Grand Opening” of the store (which is just a new section, actually) the trend seems to have stopped and, I think, we won’t see it changing anytime soon. Like I said, developers have jumped from iPhone development to iPad development. I heard of many devs who were working on this idea and as soon as Apple announced the new device, they decided to port it to the iPad. And I tell you what, I partially understand them. Clearly, having a good app in a relatively empty App Store helps when it comes to visibility and “purchase ratio”. They all jumped on the bandwagon knowing that there was a promised land opening its gates in 3 months, they had to rush to be the first to walk in that land. But hey, they also knew they wouldn’t be alone in that trip. So they rushed even more, they removed the features they thought of the night before and started coding like there was no tomorrow. The Grand Opening turned out to be the Last Judgement day.

And many of them miserably failed. Unstable applications, bugged ones, some that don’t even make sense at all on the iPad. Like I guessed some weeks ago, many devs just rushed for the sake of being there on the launch day. Dumb move. On the other hand, there are exceptional pieces of software like Instapaper, 1Password and Twitterrific already out, and these are the examples people should follow. But then again, we’re missing the main point. Developers are forgetting about the iPhone. It’s iPad now, like never before. The iPhone? Old stuff. There’s a tablet now, you know.

How wrong.

They’re not getting it, because they’re completely in love with their development iPad units and they can’t remember millions of people out there have an iPhone on their desks and they want to spend money. Tell me what’s the last iPhone application you’ve downloaded. I bet it’s crap. I bet it’s free. Now tell me how many iPhone applications you downloaded back in November and December. Exactly.

Again, I’m not saying that developing for the iPad is bad. Hell, I can’t wait to put my hands on it and install some apps. I think it’s wrong to simply focus on a new platform for the sake of its youth and forget where you’re coming from. If you call yourself an “iPhone and iPad” developer, then you have to realize the real gold rush will take place on the iPhone. But at this point, I guess we’re about to witness yet another devs differentiation : a very few dedicated to the Mac, a lot more developing for iPhone, and a whole lote more exclusively for the iPad.

If you can’t do both, do one well.