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Apple's iPhone Developer Crisis
David Gerard writes "iPhone development sounds closed-shop but simple — apply to be a developer, put application on the App Store, you and Apple make money. Except Apple can't keep up with the request load — whereas getting a developer contract used to take a couple of days, it's now taking months. Some early developers' contracts are expiring with no notice of renewal options. And Apple has no idea what's going on or the state of things. If you want to maintain a completely closed system, it helps if you can actually keep up with it."
Reader h11:6 points out news of a recent study which suggests that "Android's open source nature will give it a boost over Apple's iPhone," and thus take the lead in sales as soon as three years from now. It will be interesting to see how they deal with the flood of proposed apps as their popularity rises.
As an owner of an iPhone I am frustrated with what I can't have. What I do have is pretty darn sweet, but things like adblock won't ever come to my phone. And that's where it's needed most, where my bandwidth to the phone and inside the phone is the smallest. So in that regard I'm really rooting for android, but I can't help but draw parallels with Linux on the desktop.
Sure, we all know how great linux is for certain tasks, but it has missed that spark that makes it catch on in a big way outside IT infrastructures and embedded systems.
So that three years prediciton is sounds a lot like "the year of the linux on the desktop"
Sheldon
Ars Technica seems to have a spot of trouble with their server...
Irony is seeing And Apple has no idea what's going on or the state of things. and clicking on it and getting a 500 error. Seems more like Ars Technica has no clue what's going on.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Android might be open-source, but Android phones using Google's app store are completely locked and Tivoised, developers can't even download their own apps from the store using their unlocked phones. The fact that Android is built on top of Linux is as irrelevant as the fact that the iPhone kernel uses Mach and BSD.
Did we not forget a little mobile OS, outselling both? Did we not forget that Nokai still sells probably more phones per month than apple and android per year? Did we not forget that j2me and symbian programs do not only run on nokia phones but on a lot of other phones?
This does not mean that i done believe that android is not a promising and cool platform, nevertheless hundreds of millions (more likely well over a billion) active j2me compatible phones, for which everybody can develop would derserve to ben mentioned, when comparing the iphone to some competitors.
I own an iPhone, and I almost bought the G1 just because of its potential. Now I'm waiting to see if an an Android phone ever makes it to AT&T. I love my iPhone, but I'm annoyed with its limitations. Lack of cut and paste and the inability to have background processes are the worst of the limitations, in my opinion. I like Android in theory. A friend of mine has the G1 and loves it. But I live in a rural area, and the only reliable cell service here is AT&T.
It's not like Apple could use its 20 Billion dollars in the bank to, you know, hire more people to handle the developer requests. That would just be impossible. Companies never grow by actually applying resources to a problem.
I picked up a G1 last weekend, but ended up taking it back yesterday. On the software side, it was absolutely beautiful. But the hardware left a lot to be desired (mainly the form factor/weight). I'm hoping T-Mobile gets access to the HTC Magic sometime later in the year, in which case I'll go ahead and switch back.
As for the apps, the open source nature of the Android really showed (in more ways than one). On the one hand, there were some very interesting and innovative apps in the marketplace (and elsewhere on the web). For instance, there were several cyclocomputer apps that take advantage of the GPS and mapping abilities of the device. I didn't get a chance to try any of them out, but depending on the quality, I could see an Android phone replacing a $300-$800 dedicated GPS cyclocomputer (hell, there's probably even a way to tie a cadence monitor into the Android). OTOH, there were also a whole ton of crap programs in the marketplace. But I think the ratings and reviews are doing a decent job of weeding those out.
Overall, I do have the feeling that the Android will become a pretty major player in the coming months/years.
This guy's the limit!
The article linked is incredibly vague and seems to presuppose that the trajectory of all open-source projects is up, up, up. While this is possible -- if Google puts the resources into constant improvement, Android certainly will improve -- it presupposes that Apple is going to be standing still. Not so. Apple's iPhone platform is now a moving target, and the year to two-year market advantage is going to be difficult for Android to top.
Google, as much as I love some of their products, has shown themselves to be a bit spotty with support and improvements to many of their initiatives. Everyone understands that mobile is a big deal, but if Google's decides that they can dominate search just as much on the iPhone than on their own platform, it's possible their drive to improve Android will wither.
The fact that the platform is open-source means virtually nothing to consumers, by the way. They simply want to make calls, surf the web and play games.
Android's more open nature gives it an advantage there
If you want an open cellphone, get a traditional PalmOS device, a Windows Mobile device, or a Symbian device.
The Android phones, the iPhone, and as far as I can tell the Palm Pre, are all - in every way that matters to the end user - closed devices.
It's pretty interesting the way developers are almost falling over themselves (if you believe the summary) to start developing for the iPhone. Build an attractive product and not only will the customers appear but also the Developers! Developers! Developers!. As a developer you'll need to buy an Apple computer for the privilege, and probably start learning Objective C, not an easy language to pick up when you're used to Java/C#. It's almost contrary to the idea usually associated with MS of making it easy for developers and the platform will succeed.
I'd imagine Apple is shifting quite a few new machines to iPhone developers who would otherwise still be developing on Windows/Java ME.
I've been actively developing simple apps for the past few months. The submission process has been straightforward and acceptable. Nothing has taken longer than a week. Critical questions (banking, etc) have been answered in one day.
Would I like it to be faster? Sure. But right now I'm satisfied.
One year ago, the AppStore was not existing. Two years ago, the iPhone was not available.
How can someone make a prediction for "three years from now" ?
When the iPhone was launch every one called it doomed because it was closed, even if it was obvious Apple would sooner or later release a SDK for it. Now, the AppStore is not even 1 year old, people do not know how Apple will make it evolve (more staff, more open, ... ), and they are forecasting something for 3 years from now ?!
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Have you payed your $100 yet? I think you're missing one step... which is not the 'become a developer' part.. it's the 'become a distributor' part... which is what the articles should say.
Anyone can become a developer without a license etc. etc. but to become a distributor you need Apple's blessing and a contract, which appears to be taking longer and longer to get.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
It really feels like Apple's iPhone store is being weakened by its own bureaucratic approach. Sure, it's great to have virus-free apps, but how about choice, diversity and freedom? The content validation works pretty easily for music, but apps are not the same business at all. If you've got to re-certify your stuff each time it's updated, to renew your damn certificate, how can you focus on doing good software?
I do not give a rat ass to open source stuff on my phone, but it could be an interesting approach to make it at least possible on iPhone. How about a common certificate for multiple developers and non obligatorily checked releases?
Stupidity is the root of all evil.
I'm sorry, but isn't Apple not being able to keep up with developer applications the exact opposite of a developer crisis? Sure, it might be a crisis for the developers involved, but certainly not for the market or Apple itself!
With 15,000 available applications and over 500 million downloads, it sounds like a pretty damn succesful platform to me. With growth on that scale, it doesn't surprise me that they would run into some hurdles.
The connection to the android open source analysis completely eludes me, but I wouldn't hold my breath in any case. To most people, the term iPhone is synonymous to smartphone and being slightly more open isn't going to change anything about that soon.
If this story had come out at this time last year, I might have believed it. As it stands, I don't think Android is going to conquer much of anything. So far there have only been two phones to come from a major handset manufacturer. There are supposedly tons on the way this year from Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, and others but none of them have shown anything at all yet. And on top of that, the phones to come from HTC have been pretty uninspiring. I want to see Android take off, it looks to offer just about everything I want from a phone OS, but I'm not waiting forever for there to be a handset worth owning with it. Right now, I'm planning on getting an E71, and down the road I might grab either the Omnia HD or the N86 as a second phone. Symbian/S60 isn't perfect, but it's here now, it works, and the hardware it runs on is excellent. The members of the Open Handset Alliance can't say that yet, and that's a damn shame.
This poo is cold.
Keep in mind that the author of the report, "Informa Telecoms & Media" has a vested interest in people believing the key to the mobile market is an open source platform (This was in fact the key finding of their report). Informa runs what they call "ONLY Mobile Specific Open Source Conference and Exhibition in the World".
Be cool if the journalists of the world still looked into the motivations of their sources. Informa needs to send IBT, Businessweek and the rest of them a check for advertising fees.
I picked up a G1 last weekend, but ended up taking it back yesterday. On the software side, it was absolutely beautiful. But the hardware left a lot to be desired...
I want to see Android succeed, for a number of reasons, but like many things it is a good as its weakest component. In this case it is the hardware. What could really hurt android is if the phone companies treat it as a silver bullet, hoping it will solve all their problems, only to fail to create hardware that presents itself as a sleek item that non-techies want to buy. For all its faults this is, IMHO, what the iPhone got right since your non-techie often goes for the feel of the solution, rather than the real technical merits. An example of this is seeing a woman in an electronics store more concerned whether a given camera was available in pink instead of grey.
As techies we are going to judge devices on their technical merits and their unfettered 'hackability'. This is fair enough, but the average consumer is more interested whether it can do the job, while either being affordable or elegant (it is this that makes them willing to spend more). They don't care whether the phone is open source, since what does it mean to them? Electronics companies need to spend as much time on the 'artistic' elements of the device as they do on the technical elements.
Don't underestimate the superficial.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
and viola, adblock for MobileSafari.
A viola is a four-stringed bowed instrument tuned to C,G, D and A, one 5th lower than the violin. I fail to see any relevance to phones...
Just a day or so ago, Cydia (the awesome package manager for jailbroken iPhones used by reportedly more than 2million iPhones) launched a new app store of its own.
There have always been paid apps for jailbroken phones, but usually they would require you to go to the developer's or another web site to purchase the app. Now however, it appears that not only can you write apps that have full access to the device and without censorship, you can also use the Cydia store for a seamless shopping experience.
The Wall Street Journal and others have more information.
Granted, this doesn't give you exposure in the App store and there are issues with dealing with jailbreaking your phone, but it does provide iPhone developers and users with a choice.
Allow me to summarize Slashdot's record when it comes to predicting Apple's success and failures:
"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."
funny thing is, it seems the approval process is taking longer because of stupid processes. Example: create a corporate account. Wait two weeks. Then get the request to fax yoir Chamber of Commerce certificate.
Wait -- wouldn't it be smarter to create a webbased form where you can upload your scan? Or at least mention the requirement so I have it on file in time? Some things about the signup process are just not well thought out.
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That is how you normally buy any other machines.
And please don't buy a lottery ticket, I keep installing Ubuntu and normally I have no problems (WiFi cards are a problem, but not completely unsupported).
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I found Objective-C easy to pick up. It's the Cocoa(Touch) API which is tricky. The differences between C and Obj-C fit in a page, and the garbage collection isn't even in the iPhone version of the language.
But yeah, the iPhone/iPod touch are the third portable device type I've wanted to develop for, and the second to actually be accessible. Sure, it costs money (Macbook+subscription+game engines are among my expenses), but Nintendo haven't yet done anything like Wiiware for the DS, and even that is not entirely open to the indies.
The iPhone OS is at least as cool as the Palm OS back in the 68k (pre-ARM) days, and easier to program. Once you get past the Apple approval threshold, that is :)
... And even OSX was buggy as hell until recently...
This shows that you have never used OSX or at least very seldom. OSX has never been very buggy. That is plain bullshit.
Which leaves me thinking that you're perhaps the fanboi, and that your post should be marked flamebait.