Honest thoughts about the iPhone SDK announcement from a Nokiaholic
By Stefan Constantinescu on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 7:42 PM PST In Apple
I hate the iPhone. It is an MP3 player with a web browser and every time I see someone with it in their hand I can’t help but think they’re trying way too hard to be cool. Today, that changed.
If you haven’t watched the SDK announcement I recommend you do because maybe, just maybe, you’ll come to the same conclusions I have.
The App Store
A centralized database of every application available for a platform that can be accessed via a computer and on your mobile phone is an absolutely brilliant idea, on paper. If you watch the SDK announcement you will see Steve Jobs’ lame attempt at humor by saying pornography will be one of the criteria that will kick your application off the list, then a few other words popped up on the screen behind him. The phrase that stood out for me was “bandwidth hog” and the word “illegal.” Who determines what is a bandwidth hog and who determines what is illegal? I’m not sure I want to know, but this will be a limitation that few people will care about, until they see their work pulled because some company waved the copyright flag in front of their face.
This is a limitation that will stunt the growth of applications that, heaven forbid, use an operators network to its fullest extent. Bandwidth hog, because pouring all that money into infrastructure was to make sure text can move at a quick pace over a series of tubes.
The 70/30 revenue split seems excessive to me. 80/20 wouldn’t have made me make that previous statement, 90/10 would have made me stand up and applaud. The fact that if you want to get your application out there for free you have to pay nothing is huge and we will see all the major companies create applications as a way to further increase visibility to their brands.
Will Nokia (NYSE: NOK) copy this App Store method? They already do for Maemo, the Internet Tablet OS, and the Download! client on S60 devices is sort of, kind of, not really the same thing, but has the potential to be. This will be a space to watch.
The SDK and the OS
Again, watch the SDK announcement, because you’re going to see some development tools that are far more advanced than anything I’ve ever played with. I love Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s Visual Studio and Nokia’s Carbide had me crying like a 7 year old girl who found out there is no Santa Claus; Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s SDK looks remarkable. You have to own a Mac and pay a one time fee of $99 to become an iPhone developer, a small price to pay in the long run, but again, something just isn’t right.
Your buttons will look exactly like every other button out there because Apple wants to maintain that sense of uniformity. This limit will cause the first generation of iPhone applications to merely be offline versions of iPhone websites currently out now. The second generation of applications will be about letting the content be the user interface, similar to the music player application already on the iPhone. Mark my words.
The OS is full blown Mac OS X. I didn’t believe it the first times Jobs said it, but now I do. Open GL ES is a big deal, hardware accelerated everything is a big deal. How deep will Apple let developers dive into the iPhone’s OS has yet to be seen, but you can bet there are engineers all over the world just salivating for the opportunity to hack away at this.
What, if anything, did I like?
An American, home of the RAZR, sweet land of BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM), got up on stage and said that mobile will be bigger than the personal computer industry. An American, from the only continent that seems to want to stick to using voice mail, made mainstream America realize that having a computer that fits into your pocket, a computer that is always connected and always knows where you are is a big deal.
I hate the iPhone. It is an MP3 player with a web browser, but it stands for the enlightenment period that is about to occur in the American mobile telecommunications ecosystem. John Doerr is seeding the fertile soil with $100 million to foster growth from the newly awoken minds.
For that one fact alone, today’s announcement earned my respect. Offer iPhone 2.0 unlocked and with 3G and I may just buy one, but don’t expect me to leave the house without my Nokia N82 and whatever Android powered device HTC releases this year.
Update: Apparently there are custom UI controls, wish Jobs’ would’ve demoed that, but anyway that changes my comment about all applications looking the same for the sake of uniformity. It also makes the month of June something to definitely look forward to in terms of seeing what people start releasing.
> Your buttons will look exactly like every other button > out there because Apple wants to maintain that sense of > uniformity
Simply not true. You can create customer user controls. Watch the UI videos on the developer page before you write something like this.
Link?
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/index.action
goto: iPhone Getting Started Videos
then: Phone Application Frameworks – In Depth
timcode: 14:57 ‘build custom controls from scratch’
you have to be an Apple Developer to get access to these videos, not cool.
“Today, that changed”. Hey Stefan, what changed exactly? You start by saying you hate the iPhone, and you finish by say that you hate the iPhone!
Seriously though, the iPhone is not actually a smart phone, it’s a MacNano with a constant net connection and incredible UI. After June, all other devices will be competing with a powerful, rock solid, operating system shrunk down into the palm of your hand – you have to admit, it’s a formidable opponent. You’re 3G unlocked iPhone is surely on the cards for 2008.
Compare the costs with Symbian. You need usd 200 a year to sign apps on Symbian, instead of usd 99 for the iPhone.
Apparently the iPhone SDK can do profiling, next to on-device debugging. Profiling in Carbide means you have to buy Carbide Pro at EUR 1300. On-device debugging can be done in Carbide Dev at EUR 300.
Buy a Mac Mini for development at EUR 600.
And the good thing about Apple *publicly* stating the 30%-70% revenue share sends a powerful signal to other smartphone software resellers.
James: You’re in the UK, you’re used to seeing smartphones all over the place. The iPhone is just another smartphone and in June it will be even more, but today was the day where Apple shoved it into peoples heads [people in the States mind you] that indeed there is a computer in your pocket and you can write programs for it. That is what changed. I haven’t changed, but millions of people have, that alone makes me give a lot more respect to my web browsing mp3 playing friend.
As for unlocked in 2008, who knows, 3G is a given, but the unlocked bit … that is tricky.
Sander: Yes, Apple does indeed change the rules when it comes to developing.
Hey Sander: welcome to the club. Glad seeing you become an iPhone developer
Yes, the SDK is great, that is one great advantage of the iPhone that I say… It runs mac os x, so it should be easy to develop to
Hey, I love my MP3 player with a built-in web-browser
> you have to be an Apple Developer to get access
> to these videos, not cool.
Stephan, forget videos and links.
The SDK offers the full power of OSX programming. If you can create a new view, which you can, then you can draw anything into it and you can also trigger and receive events for it.
That’s all a button is anyway!
There is nothing in the iPhone SDK that stops anyone from doing whatever they want to with regards to drawing in views.
You keep saying silly stuff like the iPhone is “an MP3 player with a web browser”. Yeah right! Like a car is paint and carpets.
Your post rambles, misinforms and contradicts itself. I suspect you hate the iPhone because you don’t actually know what it is yet. You don’t seem to have a grasp of the product, the SDK or the concept.
Great post, although I don’t agree on many of your points I can see where your coming from. I have been using the SDK for a couple weeks now and although I am not very fond of Objective-C syntax I do have to say that the SDK provides a great deal of power for the developer. My biggest gripe is the lack of triggers or background processes. Android has triggers that will run a block of your code when something happens (a phone call, an SMS, Wi-Fi access, an hour passes by) while the iPhone SDK essentially requires a person to press the app button in order for your code to run. I understand the desire to not overload your phone with background processes but I think this restriction makes it more difficult to create apps that alert a person of new data, besides sending an SMS or email to the person I am not sure how you could do this without them actively deciding to launch your app and check for new data.
As for the App Store I feel that a centralized store is great. People want to use an application, not worry about where to get it and how to install it, especially when the device is palm-sized and your not usually stationary when using it. I have only installed 3 apps collectively on all my cell phones over the past 8 years, and I program for a living. Some apps were too difficult to install, some apps I didn’t trust or was afraid would be impossible to remove once added, and some of the apps I desired I could not find online even though I was sure they had to exist. Apple seems to have solved my problems with their solution. The 70/30 split I can agree with you on and their criteria for app acceptance also has me wondering how strict they are going to be.
In the end, as someone who is creating apps for both iPhone and Android devices I do have to say that the iPhone has delivered on it’s promise to customers and developers unlike other companies which have made the promise but have yet to deliver anything I can use right now.
P.S. Android will probably have the most distribution in the end since it is hardware independent and they have a Quake demo which is just plain cool. IMO the iPhone will take over as the primary business phone (replacing BlackBerry) and Android devices will be used for the majority of consumer phones due to the distribution outlets, variety of hardware, and tiered pricing for that hardware.