I think eventually they will need to move away from flash and cater to the tablet and portable device market. Currently these devices are outselling computers and in the interest of making the business viable they will need to move the game (or future iterations of it) to a portable platform. Since android and iOS seem to be the 2 biggest contenders for portable devices I would think making the game work, or at the least an app for these would be awesome.
Unfortunately I also see the other side of things. This game looks incredibly complex and massive and to redevelop in a new platform would be overwhelming! It would most likely be easier starting from scratch with a new game. But as a compromise an app that can just do basic things, like sending out your Geo's or Explorers, messaging and those kinds of things would be sweet. I am totally addicted to my tablet and I would love to be able to use it to do some upkeep on my island.
My only comment regarding this thread is that I am a little surprised at the anger shown from both sides about this suggestion. Why are you people so upset...lol. Its just a suggestion and I think its a good one, even though I don't see it happening due to the nature of the work. They would need a small team of coders just to get a basic app working properly. But at the end of the day this is just a suggestion. If you don't agree that's fine, but it won't hurt anyone if they do cater to us portable device lovers :P
/me waits patiently for a new portable Settlers online...maybe in a few years
