iOS 3rd Party iPad Apps in the App Store: At launch or later?

[admanimal]

So I'm sure that all of us iPhone devs are secretly working on iPad apps to take advantage of the next "gold rush" that Scott Forstall promised us, but there is one important question that Apple hasn't addressed yet: when will they allow 3rd party iPad apps in the store?

You might be thinking "when iPads go on sale, duh!" but it isn't that simple. With perhaps a few exceptions, no 3rd party developers will have any access to an actual iPad until it is available to the general public, and therefore can't test our software on the device that it will run on until that point.

If Apple allows us to submit software to go on sale at the iPad's launch, I think they are sending a terrible message to developers and basically promoting software rush jobs. My personal opinion is that they should delay the availability of 3rd party iPad apps for at least a month after we can get our hands on an actual device. What do you guys think?

 

[MikhailT]

So I'm sure that all of us iPhone devs are secretly working on iPad apps to take advantage of the next "gold rush" that Scott Forstall promised us, but there is one important question that Apple hasn't addressed yet: when will they allow 3rd party iPad apps in the store?

You might be thinking "when iPads go on sale, duh!" but it isn't that simple. With perhaps a few exceptions, no 3rd party developers will have any access to an actual iPad until it is available to the general public, and therefore can't test our software on the device that it will run on until that point.

If Apple allows us to submit software to go on sale at the iPad's launch, I think they are sending a terrible message to developers and basically promoting software rush jobs. My personal opinion is that they should delay the availability of 3rd party iPad apps for at least a month after we can get our hands on an actual device. What do you guys think?

You don't need the real device to develop applications on it. The XCode development suite has a simulator for iPad to show how it works on the real product. All developers have access to that right now, they are working hard to get their products ready by the iPad's launch. There'll be applications ready at launch, Brushes' dev at the media event last week clearly stated that the application will be ready on the launch date.

 

[admanimal]

You don't need the real device to develop applications on it. The XCode development suite has a simulator for iPad to show how it works on the real product. All developers have access to that right now, they are working hard to get their products ready by the iPad's launch.

I know exactly how it works, I'm developing apps too. My point is that any real developer should be feeling a little funny about the prospect of having to release an app for a device they have never even touched, especially one this unique (yes I know, it is a big iPod Touch...but not really in terms of how your users will interact with it). The simulator gives you 0 feel for the real performance of your apps on the actual device, nor does it let you completely test how well your interface looks/works on a real device.

 

[cmaier]

I know exactly how it works, I'm developing apps too. My point is that any real developer should be feeling a little funny about the prospect of having to release an app for a device they have never even touched, especially one this unique (yes I know, it is a big iPod Touch...but not really in terms of how you should structure your app's interface).

Presumably Apple's reviewers test on real devices. I assume if they find no problems they'll accept the code.

The bigger question is when will the final sdk be ready? If you've been working on the current one you know what I mean.

 

[admanimal]

Presumably Apple's reviewers test on real devices. I assume if they find no problems they'll accept the code.

The bigger question is when will the final sdk be ready? If you've been working on the current one you know what I mean.

It's not just about bugs though. Of course there are many apps that can't be fully tested at all without a real device (e.g. anything that uses the accelerometer), but I would feel funny about releasing even a much simpler app without ever seeing how it felt to use on a real device.

 

[cmaier]

It's not just about bugs though. Of course there are many apps that can't be fully tested at all without a real device (e.g. anything that uses the accelerometer), but I would feel funny about releasing even a much simpler app without ever seeing how it felt to use on a real device.

I think anything that doesn't use hardware features like the accelerometer and doesn't use 3D graphics should be pretty much testable on the simulator, assuming the simulator gets cleaned up (there are obviously a bunch of bugs in it at the moment).

 

[MikhailT]

I know exactly how it works, I'm developing apps too. My point is that any real developer should be feeling a little funny about the prospect of having to release an app for a device they have never even touched, especially one this unique (yes I know, it is a big iPod Touch...but not really in terms of how your users will interact with it). The simulator gives you 0 feel for the real performance of your apps on the actual device, nor does it let you completely test how well the interface really works on a device.

It answered your question, "when will they allow 3rd party iPad apps in the store? "

What you really meant was "should the developers hold on to their application updates until they get their iPad in their hands?"

My opinion is yes because holding the device in their hands and playing around with it might actually inspire them to come up with a more innovative interface than the default iPhone interface that everybody used to. The higher resolution and big screen might change how we play with more data since it can contain more of it. iPhone and iPad are not the same in presenting the maximum amount of data that's comfortable and truly immersive with all the features that the devices has.

However the users are impatient most of the time and want an update to their applications as soon as possible.

What the developers should do is a two-prong approach, release a high resolution update at launch date and put all the hard work for new interface in either a new version or just another minor update. However this also depends on wither the developers want to charge for an iPad exclusive update, which can happen since iPad might incur more extensive work than the iPhone.

 

[admanimal]

I guess my point in starting this thread was just to see if other devs were thinking about this. As I said, my hope is that Apple does the right thing and doesn't let us release apps that could not possibly have been tested on a real device. If they want the iPad to be about more serious apps and not just iFart HD, this is what they need to do.

 

[MikhailT]

I guess my point in starting this thread was just to see if other devs were thinking about this. As I said, my hope is that Apple does the right thing and doesn't let us release apps that could not possibly have been tested on a real device. If they want the iPad to be about more serious apps and not just iFart HD, this is what they need to do.

Nothing Apple does will discourage people from developing stupid worthless applications. Apple are not going to be the parent and tell the developers what to do. That should never be up to them but entirely on the shoulders of the developers. Developers need to know how to handle this on their own.

What if it was a simple update for a simple application that works just fine? Why should Apple force them to wait 30 days for that? This doesn't benefit anybody, especially the users.

 

[admanimal]

I don't disagree with that...I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I am glad that they gave us at least about 60 days to get something done.