We are actually working on having a custom app designed for the forum that will run on Android, Android Tablets, iPhone and the iPad. We hope to have this ready to go within 2 weeks.
No thanks on the custom app. This phone is my mobile office and I already have enough apps installed. The few recreational apps I have installed fought hard for that right. The reason Tapatalk is so popular is because it allows access to thousands of forums from one app. Two of my old favorites went the 'custom app' route. I stopped visiting during the day, and eventually stopped going completely. Why? Because I eventually forgot about them. I only sit down in front of my PC to do those rare things I can't on my phone.
Mobile storage should still be considered 'premium real estate'. If your app isn't ground-breaking in some way, then choosing to compete against an already established app that works for multiple sites, is a poor decision. You also lose exposure by going the custom app route. As stated in an earlier post, I found TNet on Tapatalk. I'm also a member on a couple other metal detecting forums. I looked for their forums in Tapatalk, and they weren't there. But TNet was, along with one other site (that wasn't location-specific). Care to guess where I've only been a few times since finding TNet on Tapatalk?
Regardless of content, accessibility and usability make or break a site (in that order). I can adapt to any menu, any layout, but I won't install a single-use or single-purpose app. Why did I install an Office app? Because it works with almost every Office document. Why did I install Tapatalk? Because it works with almost every forum.
That being said, I currently have a Rezound. I finally have tons of space, but after owning many earlier Android phones, I have learned to be stingy with that space. Most Android users have, and it will likely remain that way. Mainstream apps are still growing in size to include support Android 4.0, meaning that my free space, no matter how large, is still shrinking faster than I would like.
I can't understand the logic behind using a canned forum, and then choosing not to use a canned mobile app, especially one that's so widely accepted and free to install (at least for the forum owner).