The State of 148

As the Editor in Chief of 148apps.com, I feel that it is appropriate to give my thoughts, however crazy they might be, about the website, and perhaps more importantly, the wonderful world of iPhone apps.

My thoughts today are swirling around E3, the mega gaming convention in LA that I will be going to from June 2-4. It’s amazing that in only a year the app store has gone from absolutely nothing to making a major splash at international gaming conventions. Looking back at my youth, I never would’ve guessed that EA, the makers of legendary games such as System Shock and Skate or Die (remember that one!), would be showcasing games made for a phone... and that I would finally be going to E3 to play them. It's exciting to think that soon (hopefully sooner that later) the iPhone may be seen as a legitimate gaming platform, competing with the Nintendo’s and Sega’s of the world. Later on this week, Bonnie, inspired by her recent review of Zenonia, will be finishing up an amazing piece on the state of iPhone gaming, which I believe will sum up the feelings of many iPhone owning gamers... the iPhone needs more full-length games!

With this in mind, I can’t wait to see the games that will be on display during the convention. Jeff and I will be meeting with a number of developers during the convention to get their take on the future of the platform, and I’m sure that the answers will be extremely exciting.

Also on my plate is our new forum, which we hope will become as big as the website itself. The iPhone, with its infinite number of possible developers, provides us, and you, with an interesting opportunity. Unlike any other platform I can think of, the developers of iPhone apps are everyday people... people that are accessible and deeply care for the opinions of their customers. With our forum, we are trying to create a place where the end users and the developers can interact... a place that will hopefully spawn some really amazing apps (or at least some really amazing app updates). Along with this interaction, we want to create an end all spot for people to pick and discuss the best apps out there. Hopefully by the end of the year we will have enough info to make the 2009 version of bestappever.com even better than the last. So feel free to dirty up the forums... start threads, reply to posts, write angry letters to our writers (every forum needs a few disturbingly angry people). Do whatever you want, the forum is yours.

I hope that you will enjoy the site in the upcoming weeks... with 3.0 coming out soon, things will almost certainly get much more interesting. If you have any feedback for us, send it on over to me at [email protected].

Thanks for reading!