Originally Posted by
Xero
Microsoft is not as anti-Apple as people think. They develop a lot of software for the platform. But I agree with all your ideas. As a Mac user, I would love to be able to use Deal Finder.
But then again if AA thinks only premium customers have Macs, they will not want to port Deal Finder to it. They'd rather have them pay higher fares.
I agree with your point: Microsoft does a lot of Mac software. Plus, Apple was among the first companies to license Exchange from Microsoft for the iPhone and iPad. Even the new Windows Phones offer a Mac connector utility.
That said, DealFinder is not developed by AA per se - a British company called
Skinkers does the work for them. They also have done widgets for Virgin Atlantic, flybe, and SAS in the past. Skinkers has been planning a Mac client since DealFinder came out (it was to have originally shipped in 2008, but the date kept slipping). However, they were focused on building Windows widgets and Livestation (which was based on Microsoft's Silverlight). Prior to Microsoft's divestiture of their stake in Skinkers, their first (and for many years, only) Mac product was a Mac version of Livestation.
Skinkers now primarily develops iPhone/Android/BlackBerry apps and Adobe AIR-based widgets/video delivery. The current version of the BBC iPlayer was built by Skinkers on Adobe AIR, and Livestation has been ported to AIR as well. AIR works on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and Skinkers says that the new DealFinder will work on all three platforms, so I assume that the new DealFinder will be based on AIR.