The bigger problem with Instapaper AND Readability for me is that you are still kicking designers and their intentions to the curb. This is why I still think these services will not be widely supported by content providers and they will flock to aggregation services like Flipboard, because of the opportunity to brand your dang content.
These clients will continue to be dumb readers where Flipboard and (future) ilk will allow content providers to craft rich, custom experiences. The weapons of design are powerful and in the wrong hands can create a horrible experience but companies still want that chance.
And if Marco actually did learn anything from competitors, he would actually hire someone to make an Android client instead of continuing to ignore a huge section of the market for not meeting his delicate sensibilities.
There are upsides and downsides, certainly. I don't think that say... the Guardian pages on Flipboard are ugly, though. They are simple and quite beautiful while still retaining the house style. They are still focused on reading, after all.
I'm thinking of doing a mobile app for our security tool, and as far as I can tell, trying to come up with a working security model for the Android version is impossible. iOS is trivial, and if I cared, I could do a blackberry app (but don't).
So iOS > Android for people who actually pay for software, or for anything where you want to keep credentials or data secure against loss/theft of a phone. You could maybe get away with using Good or something on Android, but that makes developing an app a lot harder.
These clients will continue to be dumb readers where Flipboard and (future) ilk will allow content providers to craft rich, custom experiences. The weapons of design are powerful and in the wrong hands can create a horrible experience but companies still want that chance.
And if Marco actually did learn anything from competitors, he would actually hire someone to make an Android client instead of continuing to ignore a huge section of the market for not meeting his delicate sensibilities.