I've been away from LE for a good while now, but do swing by every few days for a gander, and am interested in how LE is moving towards these new platforms.
Regarding Macs...
I haven't used LE since the early 2.x version so I can't comment on how it now performs but I remember it having very high system specs. For Josh to say that iMac now ship with adequate GPU isn't strictly true. I have the latest iMac with the ATI HD 5670 512MB (for iPhone Dev), and whilst it does run most things (to a fashion), it's hardly cutting edge. After all it isn't the same 5670 that a desktop would have but a cut down mobile version of a lower spec'd GPU. I don't think it performs as well as my 8800GT PC. I'm not sure how LE would run on it. Also there are driver issues with Macs that Apple do seem to have a strangle hold over too. Recently, i believe, they did release gpu driver upgrades but these were for individual titles, not necessarily generic updates.
Regarding mobile devices...
How do you see ports to iPhone and Android working and what market do you see for a LE port? I develop for iPhone and it's hard to get framerates exceptable. Yes, I realise iPhone gen 4 has a far better spec, but a very very high percentage of users still run iPod Touch Gen 2 type devices. Anything over 17k polys onscreen, 3 of 4 different materials and 20 draw calls and it grinds to a halt. I can't comment on Android but I know a lot of people who solely develop for mobile devices and wont touch it (yet). So if you are planning a heavily 'cut down' LE which will run on that hardware, then Shiva, Unity and others may have that covered.
Are you thinking of going down the route of creation within an editor like Unity, Shiva and Unreal3 (that is coming on iPhone v.soon)? Are you thinking of targetting iPhone development with users using Mac's only to aid the XCode stuff?
Anyway, like I said, I'm just curious as I've been away a while and have missed quite a bit and am always keeping my options open.
Regards,
Matt.
