iPhone's Development Limitations Could Hurt It In the Long Run

ZDOne writes "Apple might have finally come around to allowing third party developers to create applications for the iPhone, but only up to a point. ZDNet UK claims Apple is leaving itself vulnerable to the competition and to a loss of lustre by blocking background tasks on the device. The author notes, 'Perhaps it doesn't trust application designers or users very much. Perhaps it wants the best software for itself, where it can limit what it can do in order not to upset its telco friends. Whatever the reason, it reflects badly on Apple. The iPhone is not an iPod; it's a smartphone connecting to a universe of fast-changing data on behalf of innovation-hungry users. The sooner it stops pretending to be a 1981 IBM PC, the better it will be for everyone.'"

Comments

What competition?

[concernedadmin]

I don't see anything as hyped (and as mostly living up to the hype) as the iPhone. If Time magazine is any indicator, it did phenomenally well last year. To top that, some cheap knock-offs would be needed, but I'm not even sure how far that would fare given that Apple has at least 300 patents on it. Could someone fill me in please? Disclaimer: I've never owned a product of Apple and don't intend to buy any of their products until they become more transparent.

Uh, perspective?

[NMerriam]

The SDK hasn't even been released yet (we've seen two betas only), and yet people are criticizing it as if this is already the last version of the SDK that will ever be released and no new features or APIs will ever be added.

Christ, the hardware itself is still on its first version (!!) and critics are already acting like the development environment has been neglected since Reagan was in office.

I suppose it's marginally entertaining for tech writers to have a new variation on the old "Apple is Doomed" story that they can use to generate page views. "Recently released handheld battery-powered device doesn't yet replicate all advanced features of a desktop computer! Also, world hunger not eliminated. Apple is doomed!"

Re:Where is the competition?

[Eunuchswear]

The w910 is not a smartphone.

The definition of a smartphone is that it has a SDK.

Very nice looking phone though.

this is worse than 1984 macs

[cheekyboy]

Even old mac os classic let any one write apps, why is jobs so scare, he should know of all people, let it be like DOS and it shall be king.

What a frickin lsd hippie old wanker!!! blinded by his ego!, take some more LSD steve, and learn the old ways before your an old man in a wheel chair.

Re:Where is the competition?

[Eunuchswear]

I pulled it out of my arse of course.

I'm not counting Java ME as a SDK.

For similar reasons.

Umm...Mod parent down?

[Vidar Leathershod]

The only way that post is interesting is that it has an interesting amount of anecdote and is not an actual benchmark that can be trusted. Having customers who have Windows Mobile 6 smartphones, Few of them will last 5 days while doing anything other than waiting for an occasional ring. I suppose if you never *talk* on your phone, and it spends most of it's time *asleep*, you might get 163 hours out of a charge (he magically fails to mention that it might be plugged in). But if you are actually using any programs on it, that battery is toast with all that junk open (Windows Media Player? Is it actually playing music? Why leave it open?). This is like the file copy troll all over again.