I’ve been seeing a lot of announcements lately about arts organizations getting iPhone applications. This seems like a great idea in the short run. You get to really connect with your audience with something that’s hip and cool. And frankly if you have a volunteer building it for you and covering all the costs there really is no downside.

But as an Arts Organization I’d warn against building a custom application. Because what do users on Google Android devices get? What do users who have phones with the full featured mobile Opera browser get? Or the upcoming mobile Firefox? Unless they’ve got an iPhone they can’t connect with your organization’s message. And while iPhones are certainly popular right now, there are still plenty of cellphones on other carriers.

I’d highly recommend investing your resources in building a standards compliant mobile web application. There are libraries that will let you hook into the various cool features of the phones (like location detection), without having to build a custom application.

And if the next trendy phone happens to be running Google’s Android operating system, or something else, you’ll still have a presence.