Can you elaborate on that, technically ?
Well, Tapatalk is developed by people I have no connection to or knowledge of. It's a separate entity. And even if I knew them, it would still be a separate entity.
What is the benefit of deploying that separate entity? I see no benefit from it that I don't get from a mobile skin.
Your members may have it already for use on another forum, one never knows. I like to offer the choice and put the power in my users hands.
Well, what your users definitely use on other forums is their device's browser. If in order for your users to experience your forum in a way that is suited well to their device they have to download and install a new application, you are not doing them any favors.
Quite the contrary. How will your users typically find out about your forum?
On the internet. By e-mail, on twitter, on Google, etc. Usually with a link to your forum. Then they go to your forum and get this message, that in order to have a good experience, they should install an app.
That's not a good start. Then they go to their AppStore and find out that with the free option they can only READ, but not write anything. That's another downside.
Why should I expect my members to pay money to write messages? And if I DO expect them to pay money to write messages: why do they pay it to Tapatalk and not to me? Know what I mean?
With a mobile skin, you can have that same little message, saying you have a forum style just for forums. They click ok and enjoy your forum. No need to install anything and certainly no need to pay anything. It's instantaneous. And that is very, very important, in my opinion. You loose registrations by asking people to download/install software.
That is why new technologies that require plugins have such a hard time establishing themselves.
Yes, HTML5 and tapatalk can coexist, there is not any: one must one or the other.
But with a mobile skin, why would you offer your visitors Tapatalk? What is the benefit? There is nothing in Tapatalk that they don't get with a mobile skin.
My forums are listed in Tapatalk - but I would never advertise that to users who come to my forum using their mobile device. Because I've found that it puts people off. It certainly puts me off.
The $2.99 cost of Tapatalk is damn near nominal and I prefer that over me paying $100+ as an admin- why pay for users who don't even have a compatible device let alone don't care about using it.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the devices that support Tapatalk have html5 capable browsers right? In fact, scrap the html5 stuff. There are existing solutions for vBulletin (for example) that offer you the capability of a mobile skin. No extra software needed.
They make a good product and deserve to get paid- I'm surprised so many here are anti-tapatalk citing costs when so many we quick to back up the XenForo team when someone asked if it could be free/open source... The bottom line is you usually get a better product when you pay for it, and if you have problems their are people's who's job it is to help you.
I've paid the money to use the full version - just to see what the hype was about back when they first launched. And I don't have a problem with ME paying money for my forum. I do have a problem with my visitors paying money to use all of my forums features (and that money not going to me). Especially when they don't have to.
And I agree... You get what you pay for and commercial solutions are usually better. So why not use the mobile skin that Kier and Mike will be making for xenForo? After all, to use it, you have to pay for it. It will be supported very well, just like the rest of the software will be.
And it's all out of one hand so to speak. AND your users don't have to pay extra for it. AND they will probably be able to switch back and forth between the mobile skin and the normal one (in case they prefer the normal browsing or whatever). What could be better?
I doubt any mobile skin would be able to replace Tapatalk but it would still be a good idea for one.
If you have an iphone, check out your Youtube app.
Then go to m.youtube.com with your iPhone's browser and see the difference. Youtube's mobile page offers you all the features of Youtube - the app doesn't.
It's fast, it's easy, it's intuitive. It makes sense. And people don't need to install anything.
It's simplicity, it's ease of use.
That is what I want to give my forum users and that is why I pay good money for the best forum software.