Man, my email has been flowing ever since yesterday morning with lots of responses to my “Nokia Fans: you’re nuts!” post.

Most say that the newly-joined Microsoft/Nokia still has no shot getting them to write apps and that RIM is even worse off.

I tried to ignore them, but then Nick Long appeared in my life yesterday afternoon.

Who is he?

Senior technical lead at Dreamworks Animation. You might know them, they do a lot of the special effects in movies. But that’s not why he was at my house yesterday. He was there to show me a mobile app that he and partner Paul Robinett will ship sometime this summer. I was impressed with their mobile app, but they asked me to keep it quiet until they shipped.

That said, I saw my chance. Here was a real live developer who is building a mobile app so I invited them down to the Half Moon Bay Ritz Carlton bar for a few drinks and some conversation. I want you to listen to the conversation that happened down at the bar. Developers hold all the cards in this game. Remember my point yesterday: EVERYTHING in the smartphone race is about apps. EVERYTHING.

http://www.cinchcast.com/cinchplayerext.swf

So, if guys like Nick won’t develop for your platform you are dead.

Listen to what Nick says:

“What are you going to develop for?”

“It’s pretty simple…Android and iPhone.”

“What do you think of the announcements today?”

“Nokia is screwed.”

But then we go into more detail about just how screwed. It’s an entertaining conversation and a rare look into how developers think.

They also explained how the non-Apple or Google companies could woo him.

The short answer is: they are screwed.

One other insight from this conversation? They feel that Instagr.am will be one of the last apps that will ship on only iOS. That’s an interesting insight too.