We have the Appium clients for 3 reasons:

1) There wasn't time to go through a full commit and RELEASE cycle for Selenium once we'd SET a release date for 1.0

2) Some of the things that Appium does, and which its users really find useful, are never going to be an official part of the new mobile spec. We want a way to make these extensions available

3) There are some behaviors whose state is as yet unknown. They might make it into the spec and get deleted from the clients, or they might be in category #2

Ultimately, the only reason for the clients will be #2. And even that is ACTUALLY EVIDENCE that we are conforming to the WebDriver spec (by implementing the extension strategy it recommends) rather than departing from it. The Appium clients are the easiest and cleanest way to use Appium.

We have the Appium clients for 3 reasons:

1) There wasn't time to go through a full commit and release cycle for Selenium once we'd set a release date for 1.0

2) Some of the things that Appium does, and which its users really find useful, are never going to be an official part of the new mobile spec. We want a way to make these extensions available

3) There are some behaviors whose state is as yet unknown. They might make it into the spec and get deleted from the clients, or they might be in category #2

Ultimately, the only reason for the clients will be #2. And even that is actually evidence that we are conforming to the WebDriver spec (by implementing the extension strategy it recommends) rather than departing from it. The Appium clients are the easiest and cleanest way to use Appium.