Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

No iPhone SDK Means No iPhone Killer Apps

Posted by kdawson on from the dang-no-photoshop dept.

iPhoneLover/Hater writes "Gizmodo is running an article analyzing the potential failure of the iPhone as a truly revolutionary platform. The reason: no SDK to harness the true power of Mac OS X and the frameworks contained in Apple's smart cell. From the article: 'According to Apple, "no software developer kit is required for the iPhone." However, the truth is that the lack of an SDK means that there won't be a killer application for the iPhone. It also means the iPhone's potential as an amazing computing and communication platform will never be realized. And because of this and no matter how Apple tries to sell it, the iPhone won't make a revolution happen.'"

13 of 657 comments (clear)

  1. well.. by untaken_name · · Score: 5, Funny

    you say you want a revolution, well you know, we all want an SDK.

    --
    http://xkcd.com/386/
    1. Re:well.. by shmlco · · Score: 5, Interesting

      On the flip side, go up to Handango and check out the "applications" for a PDA. Top sellers including a replacement for the shell, a program to make the close button "work", a file explorer, a backup program, a ringtone manager, several clocks, a weather widger, note and to-do list managers, yada, yada...

      In other words, things that any decent system should have been able to do out of the box, and nary a one a "stunning" advance. And, near as I can tell, the iPhone already all of these things out of the box. And, from what I've seen, does most of them extremely well.

      I agree that the iPhone has immense potential. But I also think that forecasting doom-and-gloom before the first one has even been sold is as equally shortsighted as you're making Apple out to be.

      If I had the time, I know I'd be looking hard at what could be done NOW with an always-on always-connected phone/internet device and making that a "killer-app", instead of wasting time crying over the tools I could have had...

      --
      Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
  2. It's just a phone... by pudding7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...not the Declaration of Independence. What "revolution" did you envision a phone making? Suddenly people stop talking while driving? That would be revolutionary.

    1. Re:It's just a phone... by ewhac · · Score: 5, Interesting
      The "revolution" that is sought (at least within the United States; the rest of the world has a functional cell phone market) would be to take away the wireless carriers' control over software on the handset.

      Ask any Verizon subscriber how "easy" it is to move address book contacts in and out of the handset. Or music. Or videos. Or any other kind of data.

      There are only two effective ways to break this control. One is legislative. (You can stop giggling now.) The other is for a handset maker to create a handset so powerful and compelling that people fall all over themselves to try and get one, and then for the maker to stand firm and refuse to give control of the handset to the carriers. Eventually, market pressure will force at least one carrier to cave in and take the phone as sold, after which, all the carriers will follow suit.

      Apple has an opportunity to help this happen, but it's not clear if they're interested in that outcome.

      Schwab

      --
      Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
    2. Re:It's just a phone... by Tickletaint · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh please, that's such a meaningless cliché. If you saw an opportunity to make money (or otherwise advance your own interests) by fomenting rebellion against the status quo, why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't any company? In fact, it happens all the fucking time.

      There are some people who appear to believe corporate interests are always and necessarily opposed to social responsibility. This is bullshit, and these people do damage to their own purported cause by setting up this false dichotomy.

      --
      Make Slashdot readable! See journal.
  3. Re:Unless... by Cereal+Box · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, the problem with making AJAX the iPhone "SDK" is that the iPhone is 2.5G. Oops. Those neat-o AJAX apps won't be too much fun on a GPRS connection that is about as fast as a 56K modem (and in my experience, you get a burst of data, then nothing, then a burst, then nothing, ad infinitum).

  4. Re:Another one? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are you crazy? I predict its going to be bigger than the segway.

  5. Re:No killer app? by Matt+Perry · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who's to say that Apple can't/won't write that killer app?
    You might be right but other people might be able to see something that Apple can't. The article brings up the Mac as a point of comparison. MacPaint was neat but Photoshop was one of the apps that made the Mac a must-have platform, and Photoshop didn't come from Apple.
    --
    Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
  6. Re:Unless... by HTTP+Error+403+403.9 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Grrr, slash needs an edit-button
    Without an edit button, /.'s potential as an amazing computing and communication forum will never be realized.
    --
    I'm not a Troll, it's reverse psychology.
  7. This just in... by jpellino · · Score: 5, Funny

    Apple read your comment, and that's the last straw.
    They're canceling the iPhone, disbanding the dev team, and selling the entire production run at Overstock.com and everyone gets a free Clio while supplies last.
    Oh, and you're invited to a party at John Dvorak's house.
    You have to bring the Tostitos, Shaw Wu's bringing the Dr. Pepper.

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  8. Re:No killer app? by magarity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The killer app is the phone
     
    No, the phone has already been invented. The iPhone needs a killer app to keep from being a phone with an "up to 5 hours" battery, in which I (and probably a lot of people) have no interest. An SDK would let some clever person who doesn't work at Apple come up with something even the clever people there haven't thought of. Everything shown on the Apple site for the iPhone's software abilities (web browser, calculator, notes, clock, etc) are already done by other phones on the market now. So maybe the iPhone does those tasks in a more user friendly way; so what? Not enough to get many people to switch to such an expensive device. No, the killer app for the iPhone has yet to appear.

  9. "Just a phone"???!!! by fm6 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Next you'll be telling me the Mac is "just a computer"!

  10. Re:Revolutions... by gkhan1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    You know the usage of the term "revolution" to describe a cell phone device just makes me sad as a 21st century man. The fact that this is what we apply the term to nowadays shows our supreme lack of imagination or want for something better. If we could have the type of revolution our forefathers had for silly import taxes for health coverage, worker's rights ,the ability for criminal corporations to poison our environment, politicians that adhere to big business's needs more than the will of the people, that'd be really doing somethin

    You know the usage of the term "revolution" to describe political affairs just makes me sad as a 17th century man. The fact that this is what we apply the term to nowadays shows our supreme lack of imagination or want for something better. If we could have the type of revolution our forefathers had using timber logs, potter's wheels, the ability for criminal corporations roll their carriages, politicians that adhere to big business's needs for more mobile cannons, that'd be really doing somethin.