The new Desire from HTC has proved a hit with a number of employee’s at Spider Online, but in the interest of Spider’s Apple fan boys, how will the new Iphone compare...

Any iPhone users with lingering thoughts of finally running Flash video and applications had their hopes well and truly dashed last week.

The rise and rise of the tablet market has been nothing short of staggering over the last few years.

The most popular tablets currently on the market are Apple's iPad with it's iOS operating system and a variety of tablets such as the Motorola Xoom and the HTC Flyer which use the Google Android operating system.

A recent report by technology company Compuware has suggested that tablet users are much more ruthless when it comes to browsing the web compared to regular desktop and laptop users.

Apple's latest iteration of it's hugely successful iPhone was unveiled by new CEO Tim Cook last night at Apple's Remote iPhone Event.

Anticipation for the latest iPhone had been running high with speculation abounding as to whether Apple would be giving us the iPhone 5 or simply a revamp of the iPhone 4 probably branded as the iPhone 4S following the company's previous releasing of the iPhone 3G followed by the 3GS.

It's the burning question that every smartphone app developer all over the world would like to know the answer to, 'How can I develop a smartphone app that will make me millions?'.

Sadly, there's no simple answer to that question, or I for one would be beavering away on my very own pot of gold app right now. Some companies do however seem to know how to strike it rich with apps – but whether it's through being privy to a winning formula or just doing it through blind luck – only they know the answer.

Many years ago, I had a hope that Internet technologies would provide the solution for delivering software across all Desktop platforms – Mac, Windows, Linux/Unix etc - without having to support multiple development environments or compromising on the design. The arrival of powerful javascript libraries such as jQuery helped to support this notion. You didn't even have to go around and install the software on all those PCs and updates became so much quicker and simpler.

It’s all well and good developing a fantastic new app then publishing for Android and Apple iOS platforms but then what? With the respective app stores growing exponentially it’s easy to upload your app then see it get lost in the myriad of available apps never to be seen again. Earlier this week, at the launch of the new iPad Mini, Tim Cook was boasting that the iPad alone had some 275,000 dedicated apps available and this excludes the several hundred thousand apps dedicated to iPhone and various Android devices!

Okay, I’ll admit I was a little confused when Tim Cook unveiled the ‘new’ iPad last week. Yes, it has the retina display we all love on the iPhone, it has an improved processor, quad-core graphics and also offers 4G connectivity (allowing speedy mobile internet access).

However, the reason for my confusion was the name… the ‘new’ iPad. We all know the original was called the iPad then last year’s revision was the iPad 2. Surely the next logical step would be the iPad 3… but no, it’s simply called the ‘new’ iPad.

We were asked recently by one of our clients whether or not they should be considering the development of mobile applications for BlackBerry and Windows platforms in 2013. Given the recent spate of launches on both platforms, this is certainly an interesting and very timely question.

In terms of market share, both BlackBerry and Windows are fairly small but recent and forthcoming developments on both platforms aim to stem the rush to iOS and Android.