Exactly. A full version of Scrivener could never run on a tablet without the tablet developing all of the functionality of a laptop or desktop. And iOS with all the capabilities of a laptop or desktop is… Mac OS X. I think some users may not realise that tablets are not full computers, but are in many ways more like large smart phones (they’re a a hybrid, really, I suppose). Their screens may look invitingly similar to those of netbooks, but they are not capable of running half of the tasks a netbook can run, and nor are they intended to.
And this is why Ioa’s analogy is spot-on - a ball-point pen cannot do what a mobile phone or computer can do, but that is not its purpose and no one would expect it to. There are more ball-point pens around because they are generally useful, and easy to carry around. When you say that there are now more smart phones and tablets than laptops and desktops, the figure is misleading because it conflates smart phones - which you would expect to be about as popular as ball-point pens these days - with tablets. There are certainly not more tablets alone than laptops and desktops. These statistics are telling, too - tablets are included with the smart phone figures, because they are more like smart phones than full computers.
I certainly understand some users wanting a stripped-down version of Scrivener for taking notes on their iPads while out and about, so that they can sync back with the full version of Scrivener when they return to their main writing machines, even though I have no interest in the iPad as a writing machine myself (I can’t see why anyone would choose to take an iPad with them instead of a MacBook Air, for instance, which is the choice I have). And thus, as it says on our “About” page, we are certainly open to developing an iPad version should we find the right iOS developer to come on board, on the right terms, to work with us and develop it.
But that’s a whole different kettle of fish to what you are talking about - you seem to be talking about “porting” Scrivener so that it remains “viable”, as though you expect laptops and desktops to die a death and be completely replaced. I expect that tablets will indeed become more popular and that eventually, yes, there may well be more tablets than laptops and desktops - because most casual computer users just write a few emails, update social websites and suchlike and so don’t need the bulk that comes with a full keyboard. Like many professionals, however, serious writers - even those who use a tablet for occasional note-taking - are always going to need a machine with a full keyboard (and don’t tell me that carrying a separate keyboard along with the iPad is more portable than just taking an MBA), and if they want to bring in research - hundreds of PDF documents, images and suchlike - they will need a larger screen and more power too. And that is where Scrivener fits into the process. If desktops and laptops completely disappeared, then Scrivener would become unviable - it would be a sad day but it’s just not the sort of program that would run in its full glory on a tablet. It is designed to take advantage of a full computer; I’d have no interest in dropping the features I wrote it for in the first place just to squeeze some more money out of it. Fortunately, I don’t think that will ever happen, as it would be a massive step backwards. There will always be users who need the full power of a desktop or laptop computer (truck-drivers, to paraphrase Mr Jobs), writers among them, and that’s why I think all those iPadophones heralding the demise of the desktop and laptop may be premature. (MacBook Air sales have apparently been phenomenal, and the iPad and iPhone have actually increased the number of Mac users rather than reduced it.)
As I say, a stripped-down version is on the cards if we can find the right person, though.
All the best,
Keith