Seems to me, Apple's move to not allow traditional Mac development on the iPhone was a slap in the face to Mac developers. More on my blog - Steve Jobs give the iPhinger to Mac Developers. Thoughts?
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Do Mac developers feel betrayed by the iPhone?
- Thread starter BrewDoggie
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I'm a mac developer, I guess I felt betrayed at first.. But the iphone gives you a whole new way of thinking about development.
Its a completely different paradyme. Microsoft has been trying to push something like this for a long time, but in there usual proprietary way that makes it clumsy.
Web 2.0, is based on open standards, and sure unless apple comes up with some way of caching the apps internally, or maybe with provides an internal applications server on the phone.
All applications have to be connected either on a local server or the web.
I can see whole hosting sites going up just to host iphone applications, the web applications interact with the phone features. ...
This may actually be the real start of web 2.0, and for that I'm excited.
Been learning Ajax and json for the last couple weeks.
I work for a software company in Japan (we do boring development, enterprise).
Anyway, I am not a fan of the web apps, they do certainly have a place but being able to have a real app is certainly priceless and Apple knows it.
My take on it is that we will see iPhone apps, but they will come off of iTunes purchases like ipod games and will only be put out there either by Apple or companies willing to pay the premium to use Apples inevitable distribution model and prime real-estate. Perhaps, we will see a very very narrow list of these real apps, probably from the largest of companies meeting Apples development guidelines but I have no doubt they will appear.
On the other end, I think we will indeed see widgets as well but probably not until the global rollout is complete in late 2008. I am certain we in Japan will be last
But, I got an iPhone anyway which won't EVER work here because we only have a 3G capable network. But at least I got a really cool iPod
Anyway, I am not a fan of the web apps, they do certainly have a place but being able to have a real app is certainly priceless and Apple knows it.
My take on it is that we will see iPhone apps, but they will come off of iTunes purchases like ipod games and will only be put out there either by Apple or companies willing to pay the premium to use Apples inevitable distribution model and prime real-estate. Perhaps, we will see a very very narrow list of these real apps, probably from the largest of companies meeting Apples development guidelines but I have no doubt they will appear.
On the other end, I think we will indeed see widgets as well but probably not until the global rollout is complete in late 2008. I am certain we in Japan will be last
But, I got an iPhone anyway which won't EVER work here because we only have a 3G capable network. But at least I got a really cool iPod
I think it is pretty irritating that the iPhone was let loose without the ability to hold open-source and/or user-developed applications. However, I should also add that I completely sympathize with Apple - knowing full well that this single device would be the target hack of every techie-owner, I probably would have done the same if I were in their position.
On the other hand, I also see that a few clever users have found ways to add skins and personal touches to the UI of the iPhone. In my opinion that is a sign that native user-developed applications will be coming sooner rather than later - it is just a matter of how difficult it will be to get them ported to the device. My guess would be some process of backing up your iPhone's metadata, pushing new code to a fresh image bundle, and restoring the tainted image bundle, but we will have to wait and see for now...
On the other hand, I also see that a few clever users have found ways to add skins and personal touches to the UI of the iPhone. In my opinion that is a sign that native user-developed applications will be coming sooner rather than later - it is just a matter of how difficult it will be to get them ported to the device. My guess would be some process of backing up your iPhone's metadata, pushing new code to a fresh image bundle, and restoring the tainted image bundle, but we will have to wait and see for now...
As a small, indie, Cocoa developer, I don't feel betrayed. If you think about it, we were never told we would be able to program for it, but we feel we were because of rumors. It's just like an iPod, were we able to develop for the iPod? No. It's more of an iPod then it is a Mac, and that's all I have to say about it.
My understanding is that most Mac developers are more insulted by Apple's claims that Web 2.0 is "insanely sweet" (or whatever adjective Mr Jobs used). The consensus seems to be that it would be unreasonable to expect an iPhone SDK at this point because Apple itself needs time to figure out exactly what the iPhone is, software-wise and especially UI-wise. These issues don't get resolved just by snapping your fingers. But the problem with Apple hyping Web 2.0 development on the iPhone is that Apple itself doesn't seem to want to eat its own cake. Mr Jobs himself said at some point that the Maps app wouldn't have been possible as a Web 2.0 app. It seems disingenuous to decide Web 2.0 isn't suitable for your own development, then promise third-party developers the sky with the very same technology that they eschewed.