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SDK Shoot Out, Android Vs. IPhone

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the take-the-pepsi-challenge dept.

snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister delves into the Android and iPhone SDKs to help sort out which will be the best bet for developers now that technical details of the first Android smartphone have been announced. Whereas the iPhone requires an Intel-based Mac running OS X 10.5.4 or later, ADC membership, and familiarity with proprietary Mac OS X dev tools, the standard IDE for Android is Eclipse. And because most tasks can be performed with command-line tools, you can expert third parties to develop Android SDK plug-ins for other IDEs. Objective-C, used almost nowhere outside Apple, is required for iPhone UI development, while app-level Android programming is done in Java. 'By just about any measure, Google's Android is more open and developer-friendly than the iPhone,' McAllister writes, noting Apple's gag order restrictions on documentation, proprietary software requirements to view training videos, and right to reject your finished app from the sole distribution channel for iPhone. This openness is, of course, essential to Android's prospects. 'Based on raw market share alone, the iPhone seems likely to remain the smartphone developer's platform of choice — especially when ISVs can translate that market share into application sales,' McAllister writes. 'Sound familiar? In this race, Apple is taking a page from Microsoft's book, while Google looks suspiciously like Linux.'"

5 of 413 comments (clear)

  1. Biased much? by pez · · Score: 5, Funny

    Whereas the iPhone requires an Intel-based Mac running OS X 10.5.4 or later, ADC membership, and familiarity with proprietary Mac OS X dev tools, the standard IDE for Android is Eclipse.

    So I can run any CPU from any vendor, with any OS, and no familiarity with anything, to develop for Android? Cool!

    1. Re:Biased much? by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wow, what a treat we have today:

      It's a Slashdot user with a 2 digit user ID, they're very rare.

      OK, take some photos, but be very quiet in case you startle it. Don't point your flash directly at its eyes since it's probably unaccustomed to bright light and you might blind it.

      When you're done, I'll be over there with the rest of the tour group.

      --
      Summation 2
    2. Re:Biased much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's a Slashdot user with a 2 digit user ID, they're very rare.

      You might say there's less than a hundred of them left in the world today!

  2. The only thing that matters... by LibertineR · · Score: 4, Funny
    is which of these damn phones is going to make its owner a better human being? I mean, that IS why we buy these things, right?

    We buy MACs as conversation starters, PCs because we are depressed and dont like ourselves, and are gluttons for punishment.

    Which of these phones is going to make me more attractive? Which phone will increase the size of my- er, um, bank account?

    I dont just want a fuckin phone, I want a phone to provide solutions to Global Warming, AIDS and Fat People. THAT is the phone I want, dammit!

  3. Cycle of Oppression by hashax · · Score: 4, Funny

    We have seen it for thousands of generations, the oppressed/rebel kid/cool dude becomes the oppressor. Apple is the new Microsoft. Pretty soon Google will be the new Microsoft, who knows what next.

    What I do know is eventually it'll lead to by the law of natural selection the most oppressive organisation in the form of Skynet and mankind's only hope will be an Austrian Terminator (no no Summer Glau of Sarah Connor Chronicles is NOT a fighter type more like a japanese maid robot)

    p.s. we do have to melt the terminator in the end just to be on the safe side