programming and human factors
by Jeff Atwood
The original iPhone was for suckers hard-core gadget enthusiasts only. But as I predicted, 12 months later, the iPhone 3G rectified all the shortcomings of the first version. And now, with the iPhone 3GS, we've reached the mythical third version:
A computer industry adage is that Microsoft does not make a successful product until version 3. Its Windows operating system was not a big success until the third version was introduced in 1990 and, similarly, its Internet Explorer browsing software was lackluster until the third version.
The platform is now so compelling and polished that even I took the plunge. For context, this is the first Apple product I've owned since 1984. Literally.
I am largely ambivalent towards Apple, but it's impossible to be ambivalent about the iPhone -- and in particular, the latest and greatest iPhone 3GS. It is the Pentium to the 486 of the iPhone 3G. A landmark, genre-defining product, no longer a mere smartphone but an honest to God fully capable, no-compromises computer in the palm of your hand.
Here's how far I am willing to go: I believe the iPhone will ultimately be judged a more important product than the original Apple Macintosh.
Yes, I am dead serious. Just check back here in fifteen to twenty years to see if I was right. (Hint: I will be.)
There's always been a weird tension in Apple's computer designs, because they attempt to control every nuance of the entire experience from end to end. For the best Appletm experience, you run custom Appletm applications on artfully designed Appletm hardware dongles. That's fundamentally at odds with the classic hacker mentality that birthed the general purpose computer. You can see it in the wild west, anything goes Linux ecosystem. You can even see it in the Wintel axis of evil, where a million motley mixtures of hardware, software, and operating system variants are allowed to bloom, like little beige stickered flowers, for a price.
But a cell phone? It's a closed ecosystem, by definition, running on a proprietary network. By a status quo of incompetent megacorporations who wouldn't know user friendliness or good design if it ran up behind them and bit them in the rear end of their expensive, tailored suits. All those things that bugged me about Apple's computers are utter non-issues in the phone market. Proprietary handset? So is every other handset. Locked in to a single vendor? Everyone signs a multi-year contract. One company controlling your entire experience? That's how it's always been done. Nokia, Sony/Ericsson, Microsoft, RIM -- these guys clearly had no idea what they were in for when Apple set their sights on the cell phone market -- a market that is a nearly perfect match to Apple's strengths.
Apple was born to make a kick-ass phone. And with the lead they have, I predict they will dominate the market for years to come.
Consider all the myriad devices that the iPhone 3GS can sub for, and in some cases, outright replace:
Oh yeah, and I heard you can make phone calls with it, too. Like any general purpose computer, it's a jack of all trades.
As impressive as the new hardware is, the software story is even bigger. If you're a software developer, the iPhone can become a career changing device, all thanks to one little teeny-tiny icon on the iPhone home screen:
The App Store makes it brainlessly easy to install, upgrade, and purchase new applications. But more importantly, any software developer -- at the mild entry cost of owning a Mac, and signing up for the $99 iPhone Developer Program -- can build an app and sell it to the worldwide audience of iPhone users. Apple makes this stuff look easy, when historically it has been anything but. How many successful garage developers do you know for Nintendo DS? For the Motorola Razr? For Palm? For Windows Mobile?
Apple has never been particularly great at supporting software developers, but I have to give them their due: with the iPhone developer program, they've changed the game. Nowhere is this more evident than in software pricing. I went on a software buying spree when I picked up my iPhone 3GS, ending up with almost three pages of new applications from the App Store. I was a little worried that I might rack up a substantial bill, but how can I resist when cool stuff like ports of the classic Amiga Pinball Dreams are available, or the historic Guru Meditation? The list of useful (and useless) apps is almost endless, and growing every day.
My total bill for 3 screens worth of great iPhone software applications? About fifty bucks. I've paid more than that for Xbox 360 games I ended up playing for a total of maybe three hours! About half of the apps were free, and the rest were a few bucks. I think the most I paid was $9.99, and that was for an entire library. What's revolutionary here isn't just the development ecosystem, but the economics that support it, too. At these crazy low prices, why not fill your phone with cool and useful apps? You might wonder if developers can really make a living selling apps that only cost 99 cents. Sure you can, if you sell hundreds of thousands of copies:
Freeverse, one of the leading developers and publishers of iPhone games, sold the millionth copy of its Flick Fishing game over the weekend, making Flick Fishing the first paid application to reach the one million download milestone. Flick Fishing, which costs 99 cents, allows iPhone and iPod touch users to take a virtual fishing trip with the flick of a wrist. The game uses the iPhone's accelerometer to recreate a casting motion, then a combination of bait choice and fishing skill helps players land the big fish.Preliminary weekly reports for the period from 23 March to 19 April indicate that Flight Control sold a total of 587,485 units during this time. We estimate total sales are now over 700,000 units, with the bulk of sales occurring in a 3 week period. Flight Control
That's an honorable way to get rich programming, and a nice business alternative to the dog-eat-dog world of advertising subsidized apps.
I love nothing more than supporting my fellow software developers by voting with my wallet. it does my heart good to see so many indie and garage developers making it big on the iPhone. (Also, I'm a sucker for physics games, and there are a bunch of great ones available in the App Store). I'm more than happy to pitch in a few bucks every month for a great new iPhone app.
If this has all come across as too rah-rah, too uncritical a view of the iPhone, I apologize. There are certainly things to be critical about, such as the App Store's weird enforcement policies, the lack of support for emulators, or Flash, or anything else that might somehow undermine the platform as decided in some paranoid, secretive Apple back room. Not that we'd ever hear about it.
I didn't write this to kiss Apple's ass. I wrote this because I truly feel that the iPhone is a key inflection point in software development. We will look back on this as the time when "software" stopped being something that geeks buy (or worse, bootleg), and started being something that everyone buys, every day. You'd have to be a jaded developer indeed not to find something magical and transformative in this formula, and although others will clearly follow, the iPhone is leading the way.
"There's an app for that." Kudos, Apple. From the bottom of my hoary old software developer heart.
The App Store is not a new concept valve have had a similar product (Steam) since 2003 as have Stardock (I think that is called ImpulseDriven now).
As others have said Apple can market the heck out of something but ultimately they lose market share when someone produces a more open clone.
There are plenty of smart phones coming now that are making the iPhone look poorer by the day.
John Hunter on June 25, 2009 8:50 AMJeff, have you ever heard of RIM and their blackberry? In fact, RIM has more market share than Apple. For some reason you didnt mention them even once. Do you have something against blackberry?
Kells on June 25, 2009 8:50 AMI've used every version of the iPhone rather extensively, but only becuase I tend to attract female Mactards. Myself, I'd never own one. It's a very amazing device, don't get me wrong, but my HTC Diamond is actually way better. The interface truly is slicker, the battery is TEN times better. I'd go into specifics, but I doubt you care.
The only reason you got an iPhone is because everyone else got one. Just admit it. As far as your futuristic predictions... you probably said the same thing in 1984. Come back here in 15 years and you'll see that it's just like when you left the Apple II behind. By then, there will be something way better, from a different company, for a much cheaper price, without proprietary nonsense. When is Apple gonna learn?!
Oh, and since you are supposed to be some kind of public voice for developers, perhaps you should try to develop something for the iPhone. Try that, and let me know how that works out for you in your next post entitled "Fuck the iPhone"!
Josh Stodola on June 25, 2009 8:52 AMJeff-
I love physics games too.
Get enigmo when you have a weekend to flush down the toilet.
What Apple is good at is making things easy to use. The original Macintosh was overpriced and underpowered and not particularly useful, but for what it could do it was easy to use. Later models were still easy to use, but also could be used for a great many things.
The iPod was useful as first introduced, but it didn't have any feature advantage over the MP3 players of the time. What it did have was easy-to-use controls and iTunes. The combination of these was enough for Apple to dominate the portable music player market. Note that the iPod wasn't thrown out there on its own, it was part of a larger system.
The iPhone is much the same way. It did take advantage of the abusive US cellphone environment to look better, much as the iTunes store took advantage of the dysfunctional nature of the on-line music sales business to look better. (That business has improved, by the way, allowing Amazon to join the market with a lot of DRM-free music at reasonable rates. I believe the net effect of the iPhone on the cell phone business will be good for consumers.) The addition of the App Store made the iPhone into part of a larger system. The AT&T deal isn't great, but it's in some ways an improvement over earlier cell contracts. The data plan isn't real cheap, but it covers a lot of data transfer, making the iPhone into an excellent hand web browser.
The advantage the iPhone has over other smart phones is that it's easy and fun. As Jeff pointed out, apps are plentiful, inexpensive, and easy to get and use. There are piles of books available at very low cost, and I found the iPhone an excellent way to read fiction (I doubt it would be acceptable for technical books). Typing on the iPhone works reasonably well, comparable to Graffiti on my old PalmOS machines. I wish it was a bit better at actually making phone calls, but it's generally usable at least, and you can't have everything.
I don't treat my iPhone as a real computer, though. It's too locked down for that. It does many computer functions well, but it doesn't allow me to program directly on it like a real computer. (Yes, by those standards the zillions of locked-down PCs on office workers' desks aren't real computers. I'm not changing my standards.) It's a great thing to have on its own, if not cheap.
Apple has been doing a lot better at supporting developers. I haven't recently seen frameworks being introduced as the next great thing and quickly discarded (*cough*OpenDoc*cough*). You get the full development environment with every Mac, although it's not normally installed (it's on one of the CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs that come with the Mac), and it's at least better than the Visual Studio Express editions. (You can also download it for free, if you want a later version.)
Similarly, development on the iPhone is simple. The development environment is a free download. It only runs on Intel Macs, which doesn't strike me as all that onerous a requirement (you can get one for $600, and it's a nice machine), and if you want to get serious you spend another $99. The difference is that there's only one standard way to sell apps on a large basis. It's easy to use, on the whole, but subject to Apple's arbitrary restrictions and haphazard approvals, which is frustrating.
David on June 25, 2009 8:53 AMI'm sure your second Apple product since 1984 will be a nice little Mac Mini, no which to develop apps for the iPhone.
Daniel Jalkut on June 25, 2009 8:57 AMIs there an actual satellite-based GPS in there, or is it actually tower triangulation?
Chris Noe on June 25, 2009 9:03 AM@Mike
>Are you just disappointed they are not selling the iPhone in your country? Because they clearly presented a list of countries and release dates in the keynote, it did not say 'the whole planet'.
I am not dissapointed because I could easily buy grey iPhone. If I wanted to. For about $600-800 (1st/2nd) which it roughly equal to what it costs officially unsubsidized I think. Which is bad price to pay for a phone (unless it is required by status or wanted for showing off - I need neither).
100% of my techie friends who bought one hadn't lasted month with it. It is too expensive and gets boring with vast and regularly renewing choice of handsets from Nokia, Samsung, HTC, etc... and there are no contracts to uphold.
I am dissapointed that people blindly exxagerate Apple's success at home market and misleading sales figures (they hype how many units they had delivered to operators, etc - not actual amount sold) into promoting is as major worldwide phone manufacturer. It is neither major or wordlwide.
Rarst on June 25, 2009 9:03 AM"I am largely ambivalent towards Apple, but it's impossible to be ambivalent about the iPhone"
Well I guess I've done the impossible again, because that's a good way to describe my feelings towards it. It's a smartphone, no more, no less. I know several people who have them (just as I know several people with Blackberries), and I played with it a little, but I've never had any urge to get one.
Or any smartphone, for that matter. I still don't see the point of paying a large sum of money, repeatedly, for the privilege of wearing an EM-producing device near my genitals (or holding it near my brain), which has the stated purpose of letting anybody annoy me with a loud noise at any time I have it turned on. Technofetishism at its best.
On top of that, it is (as you note) a proprietary platform. Sure, so are many others, but there are more *open* phone platforms today than there were open computing platforms in 1984, so I have no idea how you can claim it's a foregone conclusion with phones but not PCs.
Timmay! on June 25, 2009 9:03 AMHas anyone who has developed on the iphone give me some background into their experience of using apples ide and libraries? I am very interested in poking around with it. I've heard some grumblings from coworkers (biased, course you are too) that its difficult and unintutive.
Tim on June 25, 2009 9:04 AM@Mike
>Are you just disappointed they are not selling the iPhone in your country? Because they clearly presented a list of countries and release dates in the keynote, it did not say 'the whole planet'.
I am not dissapointed because I could easily buy grey iPhone. If I wanted to. For about $600-800 (1st/2nd) which it roughly equal to what it costs officially unsubsidized I think. Which is bad price to pay for a phone (unless it is required by status or wanted for showing off - I need neither).
100% of my techie friends who bought one hadn't lasted month with it. It is too expensive and gets boring with vast and regularly renewing choice of handsets from Nokia, Samsung, HTC, etc... and there are no contracts to uphold.
I am dissapointed that people blindly exxagerate Apple's success at home market and misleading sales figures (they hype how many units they had delivered to operators, etc - not actual amount sold) into promoting is as major worldwide phone manufacturer. It is neither major or wordlwide.
Rarst on June 25, 2009 9:05 AMI have an iPod Touch and a HTC Dream (aka the Google phone). I've done some development for both. To me, the iPhone feels like a grown up feature phone. Sure, it has a high-spec processor, and a lot of RAM, and a GPS module, and a whole host of other cool things. That doesn't make it any more than a tightly controlled playpen (albeit a very flashy, ergonomic playpen). There are some thing that I could do with my cheap S40 Nokia feature phone that I can't do on the iPhone. If you're willing to play by the rules, then the iPhone might well be the device for you.
Android, on the other hand, is like a hacker's dream. I think Google themselves have said that the intent behind Android is that the end user can replace almost any software component. Don't like the Android home screen? You can download aHome, which as I understand it is closer to the iPhone home screen. Would you rather be using Opera? You can set that as your default browser. You are not limited to apps in the app store - in fact, you can develop apps and deploy them to devices for free.
The distinction is that, with the iPhone, Apple is in charge of your phone. If that's OK with you, then you're set. With Android, Google have said that they want to put the user in charge of their handset. I hope that the future of cell phones is more openness. To that end, I hope that Apple learns a few lessons from Google.
@Jaymie. 119 on what airfield?
Darrel on June 25, 2009 9:13 AMI've owned an iPhone before Christmas, but I hardly think it's anything to really write home about.
* Most of the apps are pointless crap. Who needs to pay 99p for yet another "fart piano" application?
* Typing in comments on blogs / forums is cumbersome, and the keyboard frequently hangs when I'm typing things in, making it seem as if my connection's on a 300 baud modem with acoustic coupler.
* If the screen rotates when I'm browsing through mp3s or the web when I didn't ask it to, I might just open up the phone, find out where the springs are, and smash them to bits with a lump hammer.
* One thing I'd really like to do with my iPhone is use is as a small portable MIDI synthesizer that sits on top of a dumb controller keyboard. Some people were making a big song and dance over Ellatron, a mellotron (old tape based sampler instrument) emulator, and completely glossing over the fact that trying to play music on an iPhone is borderline impossible. It ought to be technically possible to make a MIDI - iPhone cable, except for the small fact that Apple, as usual, play secret squirrel with the hardware specs so if you want a niche application - bad luck. Might as well go to Windows.
* If I'm developing for fun in my spare time, you can frankly go jump if you think I'm going to pay any money before I have fully evaluated that the system is going to work. I'm not wasting £600 or so getting a mac and the iPhone developers kit before I find the API I want to use isn't supported. At least on Windows I can download cygwin and gcc.
Despite that, I'm happy with what I use it for (mp3 and browsing "on the go") ... I'm just not convinced of its long term potential.
> Has anyone who has developed on the iphone give me some background into their
> experience of using apples ide and libraries? I am very interested in poking around with
> it. I've heard some grumblings from coworkers (biased, course you are too) that its
> difficult and unintutive.
If you're new to Objective-C, you have some learning to do. OC doesn't bother me, but I personally know other people who hate it and do as much in C++ as they can. It feels like a weird smalltalk-y lisp-y overlay on top of C.
The API that you touch is a weird mix of object-oriented Objective-C, object-oriented C, and procedural C. I think Apple is slowly wrapping the C apis in Objective-C classes, but things aren't completely wrapped yet, so you'll find yourself bouncing back and forth.
The documentation is... eh, it's a wash. Some parts are great, others leave a lot to be desired. Usually, the easy cases (such as using AVAudioPlayer) are well documents, while the less mainstream cases (such as using OpenAL) are poorly documented and the corner cases (such as using both) aren't documented at all.
XCode is better than no IDE. I've been spoiled on Visual Studio / Resharper and Eclipse. I realize that many IDE features that I routinely use would be hard to implement in XCode (it being a C/C++/Objective-C IDE). As far as I know, though, XCode doesn't really have any sort of plugin model. We use git for source control, which means we use git from the command line. Maybe Apple will add support sometime in the next 5 years.
Interface Builder is neat, but there's no way you will figure it out from playing with it. You need to go through a tutorial to get a feel for how it works.
The best way to see what it's like is to work through a tutorial. In about an hour you can probably get a feel for what the whole process is like. Then you can decide if you like it or not.
Daniel Yankowsky on June 25, 2009 9:25 AM>Consider all the myriad devices that the iPhone 3GS can sub for, and >in some cases, outright replace:
>Watch
>DVD player
>eBook reader
Erm, call me a philistine, but I can't see an iPhone being worn on my wrist, nor do I want to sit down and watch my DVDs or read ebooks (or anything for that matter) in teeny-weeny-eyestrain-o-vision :-)
Oddly though, I imagined such things would make good diaries, yet I've heard nothing but complaints from people who replace their pen-and-paper diaries and use an iPhone/blackberry/whatever as such. I do wonder sometimes where it will end; where the gizmo-substitute will start to fail against it's more traditional (re: non-electronic) counterparts and the public lose interest. For me this happened when I got a phone that did something other than send texts/calls... yet I suspect I don't represent the majority ;-)
nony on June 25, 2009 9:27 AMTheir communications platform, AT&T, is just not very good however.
Steve on June 25, 2009 9:30 AMLet's see what you think in two years when Android dominates the market.
Ivan Vasquez on June 25, 2009 9:33 AMIf there's one million people out there virtually fishing on their iPhone the apocalypse can not be far away.
Jasmine on June 25, 2009 9:33 AMI do have to agree that yes this market is somewhat tailored to Apple's strong points, but on the same token the iPhone would be just that much better if it was open.
Yes the market, as is, is a strong suit for Apple, but the name of the game is changing with more carrier-unlocked phones being released, and with the iPhone Dev Team working hard to jailbreak and unlock the wonderful myriad of iDevices.
Also, the App Store is great for developers who want to get paid for their work, but for developers who want to release open sourced work, the AppStore is not conducive to the GPLv3 (at least that's what I've read)...
Apple's greedy AppStore and decision to lock their phone to a single carrier has only come to bite them, and most app store developers, in the rear end.
(Because of their choice to so stringently lock the device, there are now applications to replace the AppStore with a free pirated library of almost all the popular apps... jailbreak required of course)
I do think that Apple fits well in this market, and if I did buy the phone, I would use it on AT&T no doubt, but I would not buy that phone until it has been jailbroken. There is no excuse for limiting a device, and limiting the choice of software for a device.
(Alright, I'll admit, as much as I hate AT&T, maybe they don't deserve to have apps that steal all their bandwidth approved :p)
No compromises? Try replacing the battery, or increasing the storage capacity. $99 and a Mac to develop apps? Android provides a free SDK and Eclipse plugin, and developers can opt to distribute their apps outside of the Android market. Android is also getting Flash support this year, with some newer models already shipping with it included.
Seriously, did you even look at an Android phone before you wrote this junk piece?
Gr8Ray on June 25, 2009 9:44 AMOne other comment, I got on my laptop the other day and opened Outlook, I realized then that I hadn't checked my personal email account on my laptop for over three months. I have been receiving and replying to all my personal email on my iPhone. That realization hit me fairly hard. I now have a handheld device that is always with me that does about half the uses of what my laptop did. Granted, one app at a time can be a pain, but not on a 4 inch screen, its really pretty decent. There are other limitations, sure. But they aren't really bad limitations when you consider the benefits. I don't have a laptop bag with me when I go out of town for the weekend, everything I need is in my pocket.
Cory A. on June 25, 2009 9:46 AM>The iPod was useful as first introduced, but it didn't have any feature advantage over the MP3 players of the time.
Well I disagree. I was at MusicMatch at the time of the iPod's launch, and had a whole wall of MP3 players to choose from. The one feature that stood out for me was the original iPod had a FireWire connector which meant you could fill it in 5 minutes where the a comparably sized competitor (if you could find a 5GB MP3 player back then) would take several hours at USB 1.1 speeds. It had other things like a well thought out scroll wheel interface, but the inclusion of FireWire for both charging and transfer was a huge feature advantage.
Glenn Howes on June 25, 2009 9:46 AMGreat product, but just another monopoly. After the EU finishes MSFT, they'll start with Apple (oh, they already have!).
Imagine if MSFT decided to build computer hardware AND software without community. When you dont share the wealth, you fall down.
emmet on June 25, 2009 9:48 AM"Sorry but no thanks. Not for me. I just bought a HTC Touch Diamond2:
- 800x480 screen resolution in a gorgeous display
- Windows Mobile on which I can install ANY app I want (not just what Apple allows me to) for example:
- Skype over 3G
- iGo (do you even HAVE that for iPhone)
- works on ANY carrier not just the Apple-chosen ones
Other nice perks:
- FM radio
- 5MP camera
And now I can develop software for this device without having to give Apple 30%, just the regular 5% fee to my payment processor."
Yes a friend of mine has one of those. He proudly showed it to me but got a little dejected after the third crash/restart. Windows Mobile is that awesome, really. So we got drunk instead. :-)
I'm loving my iPhone. No problems so far.
Skype over 3G - have that
iGo - navigation software? Google Maps & Location services/compass worked well to direct me door to door last weekend. Tom Tom et al are releasing "proper" SatNav apps soon. The first was announced a few days ago and it looks very good.
You say the HTC works on any carrier, technically so will the iPhone but not with all its features.
Sure there are some "drawbacks" to owning an iPhone but the whole package more than makes up for it. I'd rather have stuck with my old carrier, but one mobile phone co is much like another at the end of the day. If the thing works well you should have little reason to ever contact them anyway.
Yeah the camera doesn't have as many pixels but do you *need* 5Mp? You know, that would mean being able to blow the image up pretty big. If you need images that size then a phone is never going to be a substitute for a dedicated camera. For the type of photos one would take with a mobile phone the 3GS camera is more than good enough. It's quite good at video too.
Radio is something that would be nice but then again there are quite a few radio apps available for free so not really an issue.
Developing apps. Yeah. You can develop your app yourself and market it yourself and keep all the money (bar the 5% processor's fee).
How many people do you think will get to the site where you're selling it?
The thing with the iPhone, the genius of the App store is that you have millions of people passing through it most of whom won't mind coughing up 99c for an app. So go ahead and sell 100 $10 apps from your own site or sell a million for $1 each.
Small payments, but lots of them, are where the app store wins. Granted you still need a really good app to make any money but that applies whatever platform you are developing for and selling through.
I'll confess the approval process is really broken and needs work but the one plus is that there is a decent degree of quality control (on the whole). Even the crud apps are pretty good quality crud.
This sounds like the same old thing. Those that have no experience of the platform just don't "get" why those that do love it so much. Very, very few people decry the Mac/iPhone/OSX experience once they've started using it.
Nok, I think you're missing the point somewhat. Yes, there are great alternatives to the iPhone out there that appeal to a number of different types of users.
However, as a developer of software, my goal is to reach the broadest audience in the most direct manner possible. I'm not sure how many iPhones have been sold to date, but they're reporting over 1 million sold in less than a week.
Distribution of this scale just wasn't available to the individual developer. Combine a good app on the iPhone with some savvy web marketing, and you've got a good chance at making some money.
Just my two cents.
Matt Hargus on June 25, 2009 10:12 AMFunny that the App Store is the one thing that developers really whine about. To develop an iPhone app and get it distributed, you have to apply for a certificate, get accepted, and then submit your app to Apple for approval, balh blah blah...
Some developers call this digital fascism. I call it *quality control*.
I mean come on, have you seen the sucking sea of mire that is the world of Windows Mobile shareware? Ninety-five percent of it is pure awful. The App Store, on the other hand, is a tightly-controlled, well-oiled machine. As a user, I totally love the way Apple runs this show. That's not to say that every iPhone app is killer or even useful, but at least I know it's been developed by someone who is reasonably technically proficient, that someone will probably support it, and that it probably won't kill my cat.
Lee Dumond on June 25, 2009 10:14 AMOriginal iPhone users were not suckers, you could get them for a low price and jailbreak/unlock them without signing up to a horrendously overpriced contract.
Paying £30+ a month over 18+ months is for suckers.
Also, you'll soon get sick of Apple deciding what apps you can/cannot run on your hardware.
There are still many niggles, but I can live with them as the UI is so nice.
Zimmy on June 25, 2009 10:21 AMI heard iPhone app development works like this:
1. Spend six months learning the ropes and excitedly developing a game
2. Put your game up on the iPhone store for 99c
3. Wonder why your app sales didn't even cover the cost of buying an iPhone, let alone six months' salary
Confirm/Deny?
Jonathan Drain | D20 Source on June 25, 2009 10:24 AMWell, why don't we all just give the iPhone 100% of the market share already, then? No need for anything else since this is the ultimate end-all smartphone. Anyone buying anything else must be insane or criminal.
For a hacker/programming blog, I also find it absurd that this post failed to even mention Android.
dtr on June 25, 2009 10:27 AMI'll go one further than you: I predict the iPhone will eventually be judged as more significant than Wintel.
Xianhang Zhang on June 25, 2009 10:40 AMTry selling the iPhone in Japan ... they cannot *give* them away, the Japanese realise they lack features, the Panasonic P905i is now considered old hat and out of date, it can do everything the latest iPhone can do now, and has a better camera, and can work as a TV .. all this was released back when the iPhone was without a camera at all or even 3G
In Japan the iPhone is playing catch up and losing....
@Donny V
Things that will keep it from growing.
1. $99 to develop for it
2. Apple takes %30 of the sale of your app
3. Draconian app approval process
4. Re-approval process just to submit an update for your app
6. Apple forces the market to under price your app.
Try building your own global marketing and distribution system and then complain about $99 and 30%. I don't think you've really thought your comment through very carefully.
Scott K on June 25, 2009 11:00 AMI sell software on Windows desktops already and I don't need some sort of Microsoft Superstore to approve them. It's called MY WEBSITE. I do marketing, I spread the word and I make a living out of it.
I wonder how many people can live on $.99 apps. It's easy to say "sell to 1 million users". Did YOU ever sell to 100? I did - it's HARD.
Funny, my WM never crashed (so far). Not that I would think it's without bugs, but what OS isn't? Certainly not Apple's.
Check out iGOs map coverage. Thing is TomTom has NO maps for my my neck of woods. So my point is: on Windows Mobile I have the choice to install something else. On iPhone I have NO CHOICE.
Because Windows Mobile is OPEN. Much like IBM's original PC. As opposed to Apples closed platform. Guess who won. History is just repeating itself...
Nok on June 25, 2009 11:01 AMWow, took you long enough! I bought my iPhone last August and I think it was the first ever Apple product I purchased.
I love the thing, but I grantee you, you'll get over the initial wow of the phone after 3-4 months, and the geek at heart you are, you'll be jailbreaking the device. Then, you'll find out what the device *really* can do and can really say that its a computer in your hand.
The developer community for the iPhone is great, and I love it, but I really wish Apple wouldn't hold them in their own little virtual sandbox to develop in with those weird rules and policies. They need to open it more so developers can integrate more with the phone. Windows Mobile does it just fine, I don't see why Apple has to be any different.
Sentax on June 25, 2009 11:09 AM"For the best Appletm experience, you run custom Appletm applications on artfully designed Appletm hardware dongles. "
I disagree, in my experience, the best Apple software is written by third parties. Look at NetNewsWire, Delicious Library, VooDoo Pad, PhotoShop, and anything by Panic or Rogue Sheep.
Scott on June 25, 2009 11:10 AMDid Atwood just wake up from a coma and discover the iPhone?
john on June 25, 2009 11:12 AMCell phones don't have to be a closed, proprietary private garden. While Apple may have made a nice private garden, it's not going to end up being revolutionary or a "turning point", any more than the gardens at Versailles ended up being more important than the Homestead Act (to stretch an analogy way too far :) ).
There is already OpenMoko or even the Android G1. There is no reason why cellular service has to be a locked-in multi-year contract; the cellular network doesn't require that kind of guaranteed revenue to build, it has been already built, and it didn't require multi-year contracts when it was being built.
It is nice to see a market place where independent, small software programmers can make money. Eventually, as the pocket-computer market matures, open systems will dominate just as Apple lost their leading share to the PC in the 1980s, and the software market will change and free programs will dominate, etc. I am sure it will partly follow previous computer platform cycles and some new things will also happen.
Kids used to play at fishing with a stick that was free, now they use a $400 computer plus whatever the app costs. It reminds me of another app, I know the person who wrote it, where you toss the iPhone into the air and it records how high you tossed it and posts it to a high scores list on the web so you can compete with your fellow iPhone having cavemen in strength contests ( it is called either hangtime or iphonehangtime, not sure). My point is: for a large number of these apps, the iPhone is just a smart rock.
RobR on June 25, 2009 11:12 AM@Jon
"Yes, it's sleek and pretty, and to some people who put a priority on gaming or for whatever reason need to be able to check their email at any time, it's worth it, I guess.
For most others it's just another example of excess that's sadly so prevalent in our country."
I felt the same way about the first revision (and about cell phones back in '04!), but then last year's 3g came out and with its GPS inclusion and subsidized price was enough for me to take the plunge (I was going to get dragged into a new phone contract anyhow and didn't want to drop the cash for a GPS AND a phone).
It has been totally worth it. My first Apple product ever and it has completely transformed the way I compute. Nowadays I turn the computer on mostly for games or
And this isn't excess. This is what the tech industry is all about. Regardless of whether you buy an iPhone or some other phone the next time you need a new one, in a few years you'll be gaining the benefits iPhone users have had all along. It sounds like that's fine with you, so just sit back, ignore those of us who are excited about SHINY, and wait for the extraordinary to become the everyday.
Andrew on June 25, 2009 11:16 AMAhem, copy-editing fail in my last comment. I meant to say,
Nowadays I turn the computer on mostly for games or some web browsing/writing. Feed reading, lots of email, looking up all manner of info happens when I think of it or have some downtime, wherever I am, on my iPhone. I actually dislike maps.google.com now because the experience on the iPhone is so much better with the automatic searching in my immediate vicinity.
Andrew on June 25, 2009 11:20 AM@Rarst says: "I am dissapointed that people blindly exxagerate Apple's success at home market and misleading sales figures (they hype how many units they had delivered to operators, etc - not actual amount sold) into promoting is as major worldwide phone manufacturer. It is neither major or worldwide."
You are wrong in every respect. Apple's overwhelming success with the iPhone at home is very well documented: "In its May 2009 Mobile Metrics report released today, mobile advertising firm AdMob revealed that the iPhone and iPod touch now account for 69% of the U.S. smartphone traffic on its ad network." These are unfakeable figures of actual use. And they date before the release of the iPhone 3GS and the $99 iPhone 3G. Concerning Apple's sales figures reporting, you must be mixing up the iPhone with Microsoft's Zune. Apple only reports actual sales from its own stores, not channel shipments. And considering that every third party store was completely sold out of the iPhone 3GS, that one million 3 day figure was actual sales, not shipments.
So far as Apple being worldwide -- they sell the iPhone in 88 countries, including most Eastern Europe, the Baltics, Russia, a bunch of African nations -- sounds pretty worldwide to me. If their still not selling it in the Ukraine (I'm guessing that's where you're from), that's too bad, but you don't need to sell there to be worldwide. But take heart -- Ukrainian language support is in iPhone 3.0, so sales there can't be too far behind.
Ted T. on June 25, 2009 11:23 AMSorry, but the game-changing device was released in the mid-90s, it was the PalmPilot and it did what Apple couldn't do with the Newton. The PalmPilot had a lot of great features: small, touchscreen, "handwriting" recognition, 1000s of applications available on-line - many for free, and best of all there was a tool-set that could be used to develop applications, for free.
It was probably the most enjoyable "computing" device I've ever used. Its UI is still far superior to any mobile phone I've used, even the Blackberry I currently own.
It's a shame Palm stumbled on the transition to a mobile phone.
rich on June 25, 2009 11:24 AMAs much as I agree with your premise - that the iPhone is amazing in every way - there's one point where I vehemently disagree:
It's anti-developer.
The only reason I haven't even considered buying an iPhone is that I refuse to spend time and money to develop an application, only to have Apple turn it down *arbitrarily* and for stupid reasons.
Until the developer agreement changes *dramatically* and Apple's approval process is *completely* revamped, I can't help but see iPhone developers as dumb little sheep.
greyfade on June 25, 2009 11:24 AMI'm with the others on Android. I have a G1, and I absolutely love it. It can do everything the iPhone can do, and more.
It had a barcode scanner for price checking almost from day 1. My friend just showed me the barcode scanner on his iPhone that finally came out, and you have to take a picture, then hope it scans... unlike the Android apps which scan it with the video stream (autofocusing for you). With the cupcake release, I can now shoot videos and upload them to YouTube, STRAIGHT FROM MY PHONE!
I can even ssh into my linux box!
$99 to develop? I prefer free, thank you very much. Require me to buy a Mac? I prefer my linux box, thank you very much. Don't let me load whatever app I want? I prefer loading any random app I want, THANKYOUVERYMUCH. And the openness of Android is a breath of fresh air to the mobile market. I've already played with development on it, and had no problems loading my apps and testing them on the G1 (not a developer model, either).
I'm quite surprised you missed mentioning Android as a possible future, Jeff... I honestly believe it has the potential to slowly overtake Apple as more devices come out.... I have developer friends locked in an AT&T contract with an iPhone that are jealous of my G1.
By the way... I switched from AT&T to T-Mobile to get a G1 (I will continue to avoid the iPhone, thank you very much).
Mike Stone on June 25, 2009 11:28 AMJeff,
Just to be fair can you site a iPhone developer you have talked to? Build and iPhone app then come back to us...
Matt
mattd on June 25, 2009 11:28 AMInteresting, no one said it yet:
The iPhone is the Firefox of cell phones. Or can be, as long as Apple doesn't mess up - it's the closest to Firefox customizability that's happened so far.
Izkata on June 25, 2009 11:29 AMThe iPhone is a good platform. Personally, I like Android a bit better since it has apps I like on it that aren't available for the iPhone, but the iPhone is definitely the first hand held platform to really energize this type of product.
Let's face it - the handheld, always connected, geo-aware, augmented reality device is the future. We are just seeing the birth of it now - it will become more sophisticated and powerful in the very near future.
Timothy J Collins on June 25, 2009 11:40 AMApple is a self-limiting company. They have a superior OS to Microsoft's, but look at their market share. And they're following the same strategy with iPhone. Android, on the other hand, is taking the Microsoft strategy: become a platform for hardware vendors.
Evolution beats central planning. Apple is repeating the mistale of holding tightly to a niche and forfeiting the greater market.
May I suggest GeoDefense Jeff. I found it to be a ridiculously deep TD application. Have fun.
Judd on June 25, 2009 11:55 AM@Scott K
I don't need too build my own global marketing and distribution system.
We have the internet for that. Its crazy cool! You should try it. You can freely move around and pick and choose what ever app you want. Its a crazy idea I know.
Look, just cause Apple has lock on there users and can filter all those eyes to there app store doesn't guarantee that those people will buy your app. Actually it makes it worse because since all the apps are centralized, your app will most likely get buried under the 1,000's and 1,000's of apps and never reach its full potential.
Donny V on June 25, 2009 11:56 AMiPhone 3G is the only Apple product I've ever owned and I'm very happy with it. Now I want a MacBook so I can develop apps for it.
Brian on June 25, 2009 12:02 PMI just upgraded from the original 4gb iPhone to a 16gb iPhone 3GS. It's a huge difference -- the performance is substantially better. I never checked out the app store much other than to get Wolfenstein, 21 Pro (blackjack), and Facebook.
I am patiently waiting/hoping for a mature [enough] version of Mono for iPhone development. I have a few ideas.
Rick Brewster on June 25, 2009 12:04 PMA well known strategy of Apple (and, to be fair, others) marketing is to concentrate on selling to the "thought leaders" within various "micro-communities".
The idea is that these people will then be a much more credible influence on selling the product to the rest of the micro-community. This is paricularly effective in *intellectual* or creative communities.
So, as someone else said Jeff, How much did they pay you?
"Apple has never been particularly great at supporting software developers"
They haven't? They ship an excellent IDE and documentation for free with every Mac. Have been for years. They publish loads of tutorials to help you get started. Their GUI editor beats the pants off of any other one out there. The bar to entry for developing on a Mac is practically Zero. Even though that has changed by now, it's been a lot worse on the Microsoft side.
Care to expand on your point?
Dav on June 25, 2009 12:50 PMHaving been part and followed closely (smart) phone industry for several years I agree with several points that Jeff mentioned.
Apple and iPhone has changed game and they are changing the whole industry in many positive ways. Apple had balls to NOT to please operators which was very important power shift allowing innovation to foster in previously very closed and startup-unfriendly industry.
Many people entering mobile at the moment don't realize this.
As I'm located in Finland, the home of Nokia, we have a bit of a different problem: Nokia's huge worldwide market share prevents some local industry veterans (both inside and outside of Nokia) to see the shift that is happening.
The fact that indie developers are whining that they don't make money from AppStore is a good example of the shift: just two years ago they didn't have a change to get *any* users, now distribution problem is solved for them. But no one can solve a marketing problem for all of them...
There is a long and very thin tail in web apps and likewise there is similar tail in mobile apps. 40 million iPhone OS devices is not yet enough to make that tail a profitable place to be. But innovating on iPhone OS is a good strategy for a startup: once you get your offering working, you can widen your reach to other platforms. For example in-app purchases are new, fresh possibility to try out some business models that have been quite hard to do in web apps.
You are wrong in so many ways this time, Jeff.
1. As noted by somebody else, the US has a mobile closed-ecosystem, but this is not the norm in several European countries (don't know about Asia, but probably is more open than the US).
2. Yes, the iPhone looks like a great phone only because the competitors (in the US) are crap (well, not total crap, but worse than the iPhone). As noted again by other people, there are better phones (HTC Magic, HTC Touch HD, Nokia N97, Samsung Omnia HD) that for some stupid reason, the American carriers haven't thunk of using.
3. I guess it's OK to say that the iPhone OS is quite a good one. Symbian is not squeezing all the juice from Nokia phones, Windows Mobile has to deal with some baggage, Android has to mature a bit more (but it's almost there). Still, the iPhone OS is not light-years ahead of any of them.
4. As a developer platform, Windows Mobile is the one you should be singing praises. Doesn't require a license fee to enter into the walled-garden, doesn't require a stupid Mac to do the actual development, doesn't require a stupid App store to publish your applications and better yet, doesn't require learning yet another set of tools and languages in order to be fully proficient, just recycle that good, ol' .NET skills you already have!
5. Yes, the App Store makes life easier for some developers but it also makes it more difficult for others (having to be blessed by Apple in order to be allowed in)
6. It is not a computer, it's a smartphone. A notebook is twice as powerful and cost half the price. I know, it is nowhere near as portable as the iPhone.
But you are right in one thing, for the US market, the iPhone 3GS is currently the best smartphone you can buy. Sadly, as noted previously, their marketing wants you to believe it is the best damn phone in the entire world. I just hope that Windows Mobile 7 will eventually be released and that Verizon (not that I like them, just that it's the only carrier that has a high-profile smartphone already) brings a good HTC or Samsung phone to kick the sorry iPhone's ass.
Eric on June 25, 2009 1:01 PMHow profoundly late to the party. Next you're going to tell us that you predict that the internet is going to be a big thing.
You really are going out on a limb declaring the iPhone the next big thing when it has been a big thing for a couple of years now.
Then again, you did give that Nostradamus-worthy prophecy that electronics will be followed up by even better electronics, which is truly a innovative way to think.
Dennis Forbes on June 25, 2009 1:16 PM@Ted T.
>You are wrong in every respect. Apple's overwhelming success with the iPhone at home is very well documented
I don't doubt it success at home market for a second. There is also world outside US border, you know? :) With some countries where iPhone was met calmly and forgotten/out of fashion for now. It is succesful niche device, but hardly wordlwide game changer.
>Apple only reports actual sales from its own stores, not channel shipments. And considering that every third party store was completely sold out of the iPhone 3GS, that one million 3 day figure was actual sales, not shipments.
Says who? Apple says "sold", not a word about actual buyer getting device in his hands. I believe sources like mobile-review.com that always pointed out Apple is using "sold" and meaning "shipped"... And backed it up with actual sale figures released months later.
>sounds pretty worldwide to me
Present worldwide and matter worldwide are different things. :) Just take Nokia numbers and put them next to Apple.
PS I really feel that comments kinda split by inside US/outside US factor. :)
Rarst on June 25, 2009 1:23 PMAll my possible arguments have been said, but to summarize:
Android rocks!
iPhone sux!
The problem with Android is that although it's a great platform, HTC as the leading hardware provider is holding it back in the area of "ugly-ass phone toys for hackers".
Just look at the ridiculous HTC Hero's chin. On what level can that be comfortable to hold in a pocket?
Oh, iPhone owner here since December, who was an Android fan until G1 was announced.
Maciej Rutkowski on June 25, 2009 1:42 PMAt least you're not afraid to tell the world you're a complete sucker for marketing.
Oh, wait, you actually believe all that crap!? This from the guy who's posted more than one article about how evil it is for Apple to lock everything down and restrict your EVERY movement on one of their devices?
Wow, okay, nevermind. Apple Marketting Drivel Drone 93881 status: brainwashing complete.
RIP Coding Horror, 2004-2009
Nick on June 25, 2009 1:53 PMThank you for writing this. Because I've been thinking the exact same thing without realizing it. You've made me realize it.
rick on June 25, 2009 1:59 PMBtw, Joel has a Nokia E71 ;-)
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/08/22.html
Carlos on June 26, 2009 2:52 AMBtw, Joel has Nokia E71
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/08/22.html
Carlos on June 26, 2009 2:53 AMI have a HTC Magic (aka G2) which is an Android device. I have compared it to an iPhone a friend of mine has. Both have their advantages and disadvantages but for me Android wins.
And yes I also think that in the long run Android devices will take over iPhone.
Daniel Lehmann on June 26, 2009 3:02 AM>>> Apple completely sucks at influencing anything on worldwide scale.
>>What? Are you actually serious?
I think Rarst is right. How many people use iphone in India? People will start using this kind of device when Microsoft/Nokia introduce it in India.
In OS the story is similar. Windows has localization in Tamil, Malayalam etc. How many international locales does Mac support?
Nokia has devices localized in Tamil, Hindi etc.
Nobody knows Apple in India.
[I am not saying Apple is not innovative or not influential in US or Europe - but that's not "worldwide scale"]
Welcome aboard. I've seen some amazing new software in the last year on this mobile platform and this is just the beginning. I'd say keep an eye on Android and Pre too. Sadly WinMo and Symbian are now a decade behind and I see no sign of them catching up.
A recent seminar by an experienced mobile games company (Popcap) I attended identified that iPhone games take 1 coder and 1 QA only 3 months to create. In comparison, to make it for Symbian/Java/Brew means 6 coders and 7 QA. And despite the difference in market, Popcap say they make 37% of their market out of iPhone and only 2.7% from the Java port.
iPhone is only a revolution because we were previously in an abused and repressive market.
Finally some competition!
mj on June 26, 2009 3:55 AMi like your passions and many other fellows about iphone (and being iphone user since its inception i might wana two cents). Iphone is great product but being a locked down it is i couldt keep it with me and now it lies my brother's pocket (who incidently moving to N97 as well).
There are few things which i notes.
1. Lockdowns are still exist in IPhone as you can install and obtain virtiually any application which exist for IPhone in Symbian or Windows phones (and soon andriod or Palm too).
2. The contracts which we paid for IPhone were far greater then other counter parts and actually i blame Apple for starting a new tred of exlcusivity and high end contract prices for normal calling plans. (just another info, i cant get out of O2 even i finished my first 2G IPhone contract WTF?)
3. Whatever it is, at the end it is phone too (remember I"phone") but it is not as the basic functions which can i get from Nokia 1600 were not present in it until the latest and greatest phone (and i remember ppl call apple as perfectionist).
4. The most important thing that people often forget there is world beyond the UK/USA or few other counteries and all these statistics which are presented here and there forget this important point and always claim Nokia/Sony is losing while i think they never given a thought to this point.
i can give more reasons but it supposed to be comment not a blog :).
oh yeah i will give credit where it is due i.e. Apple should get credit for creating a race for niche interfaces , web packages and enhances user experience for mobile phones which everybody is catching now (andriod or Palm are the two great examples).
Usman on June 26, 2009 4:06 AMThe iPhone is good. There's no doubting that, and there are a lot of happy, vocal, non-IT people who like it heaps.
Also, I'm sure Apple will get the Windows port of iPhone development kicked off as soon as Microsoft gets visual studio for the Mac released.
I program asp.net all the time, but I'm not going to complain if I have to buy a mac to program an iPhone. Well I guess because I already own one :-) The nice thing is I can program android on my mac as well.
Chester on June 26, 2009 4:09 AMShut up! ;-)
I already wanted the iPhone 3GS (never had an iPhone before) and now you make me want a Macbook Pro too and start developing software for it. But I'm not looking forward to programming in Objective-C...
Jesper on June 26, 2009 4:13 AMThere is another reason for people who felt a sudden change is because i often seen people using phone from around 3/4/5 years which wen you suddenly change with IPhone give you a "wow" factor now but if you are keen follower of gadgets then you know from where it is coming?
@Dav this must be a joke is not it? Are you saying there is no penality of starting as a MAC Developer, just simple statistics, i can buy a good machine for £500 and can build whatever in MS products and for MAC i have to buy a shiny mac to just start getting my hands on!! lolz you must be living some other world mate :( sorry to awake you lolz
Usman on June 26, 2009 4:19 AMYou might want to take a quick look at these posts before you sing any more unbridled praisees:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/30/iphone-app-developers-threaten-to-sue-apple-over-late-payments/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/25/apples-iphone-app-refund-policies-could-bankrupt-developers/
I've developed and will continue to develop Android applications, but I'm not going to even consider developing any iPhone apps until they get these issues sorted out, especially the refund one. The fact that that clause even existed in their contract in the first place disgusts me. You'd think that they would be a little kinder and more accommodating to the developers whose backs their App Store is built on.
Jarett on June 26, 2009 5:36 AMI read a lot of comments saying things like "I only use my phone for calls and SMS" or "most people don't need apps". While this may be true, there's a strong possibility that you think that way because your current phone sucks at everything except making calls and writing text messages.
I used to own a variety of different smart phones, mostly Palm devices and Symbian phones. While these phones technically did a lot more than my iPhone does, I never really used them for anything other than the basic features. Sure, I used the calendar, and I even installed Sim City on my Palm, and perhaps I took a few pictures, but that was pretty much the extent of how I went above the basic features of these phones.
The iPhone changed that. Now I use my phone to look something up on Wikipedia or imdb pretty much daily, I have an app for train schedules which I use about three times a week, I post pictures to my tumblr blog and to facebook directly from my phone, I check my gmail account, I read stuff using Instapaper, I check traffic on my site using the Google Analytics app, I read books using Stanza, I keep a list of groceries I need to buy, I check the weather forecast, I use midomi to figure out the names of songs I like on the radio, I do price comparisons when I'm in a store, I check out the names of stars and mountains when I go for a walk in the evening, I keep track of my runs using a GPS app, I have a snow forecast with avalanche warnings when I go snowboarding, and of course, I play games when I'm waiting for a bus or when I'm just bored.
In other words, the iPhone has become an integral part of a lot of stuff I do, much more so than my earlier phones that offered a lot more features than the iPhone does.
Perhaps you don't care about the things I use my iPhone for, but you can be absolutely sure that there will be things you will use your iPhone for that you did not expect. The fact that you only use your current phone for calls and SMS is a result of the crappiness of your current phone, not an inherent attribute of how you use cell phones.
The iPhone is a computer that you carry with you in your pocket and that can do pretty much anything you want it to do. If you can't come up with a few things you want such a device to do, you should probably hand in your geek card :-)
LKM on June 26, 2009 5:37 AMCue comments from the Android/Palm Pre geeks who fail to get it...
Wait, too late.
nexusprime on June 26, 2009 5:45 AMI will admit that the iPhone is a great product with a great interface and is doing a lot of things right. The one place they are still doing it wrong is supporting developers. I still feel the platform is so crippled due to the fact that I have to PAY to put an app that I wrote on my friends iPhone. WHY is all that is good is this correct? WHY does Apple choose to be the gate keeper?
I am perfectly fine with them being the the gate keeper to the App Store so they can control the content on the store. I feel that they should still be a way to put an app on my phone that was distributed free by someone else. Maybe this is what I'm used to since I'm a Windows Mobile developer.
Bobby Cannon on June 26, 2009 5:46 AM@LKM
Your comment is most valid except that it can be about any (powerful enough) phone or smartphone. :) For example many people can tell a similar story about how Opera Mini changed their mobile life.
Rarst on June 26, 2009 5:46 AM@fishstick_kitty: ...BTW, OS X kicks the crap out of ANY...and I mean ANY existing operating system...
This is your opinion and I am glad you are happy but this is not reality. Reality is that OS X is a great operating systems for doing some things but it can't handle the corporate world. The ecosystem is way to closed for other companies.
3rd party companies want to design and create products that work with your system. This means you must support them and their developers. This means you must cater to the developer and allow them to create their product to work on their system.
Microsoft has done this exactly and without control. Yes Microsoft will end up with some crappy 3rd software running on their OS (Windows) that will blue screen and Microsoft will be blamed but they will own the market.
The good part is that they are sensible professions out here that understand that Microsoft isn't perfect but make one of the best OS's out there if not the best but this is only my opinion.
Captcha: mr barges
Bobby Cannon on June 26, 2009 6:00 AMsay what you want, the iPhone is good at what it can do.
and when jailbroken (a super-painful 5 click, 5 minute process), you can multitask your little heart out.
windows mobile = restart, restart, signal drop, lag, restart
android = lag, lag, shitty app, lag, lag, where's the bluetooth?
as for development, once again, you can jailbreak your iphone and compile on it yourself.
and for being forced into buying a mac for the SDK?
try writing a winmo app on linux.
quit bitching about the iphone, just because your winmo phone has a million potential functions, doesn't mean it can do any of them well.
and i don't have an iphone.
i have a nokia e63 running symbian, and i love it.
but the ovi store is a joke, and S60 is far from the sexiest UI.
What's a Macintosh?
Shady on June 26, 2009 6:24 AM"accelerometer" !!
Missed that completely.
Do you mean to say that if I am good enough at programming the iPhone, I can ask my users to buy two iPhones and give them training to become a Jedi fighter?
Or Mandrake the magician?
Or techo-martial-artist-programmer.
*Real* code-fu?
I move the phone this way - whoosh - my car door opens, I move it that way - whoosh - and my door gets locked behind me as I leave.
With the sounds too :-)
I make a circle in front of me and hold the camera and it clicks a photo. I make a bigger circle and it zooms in proportionally and then clicks a photo.
I have to check out this app store ASAP, lest they call me an aboriginal...
I'm not sure why everyone thinks the iPhone is somehow dominating the phone market. It's certainly a hit on the Internet. So far I have only met a total of two people that have them.
I guess it's apparent popularity in the media and on the net is causing it to have a big influence on other phone makers.
Reed on June 26, 2009 7:35 AMI'd love one, however at my house I can't even get a reliable voice signal that lasts for an entire call, never mind a signal that can handle browsing for any length of time. There are roughly three places inside my house where one can stand and get a 2-3 bar signal. Step outside of these 3'x3' spots (even if on your way to another of the spots), *poof* goes your call.
I'm a geek, but not a cell phone junkie. I have a company-provided Blackberry that I find useful, but if they took it away I doubt I'd get anything as advanced on my own tab. Granted, I have used the Google Maps/GPS combination to find something nearby or get directions, but not more than 6 times in the past 2.5 years. And you know what? Without the Maps/GPS I probably would have found what I was looking for anyway with a little extra effort.
I don't do (nor understand the need for) texting. If you have the time to text, you have the time to dial, so dial. If it's not proper/convenient for you to talk on the phone right now then chances are it's not proper/convenient to text right now. If you call me and I don't answer my phone it's because a) I don't want to talk to you (very rare), b) it's not convenient to pick it up (I *refuse* to answer my cell while I'm in the loo - that's. just. wrong.), c) I can't answer right now because I'm busy (aka, "driving"). If that's the case then here's a radical idea - LEAVE A FREAKIN' MESSAGE!!!!! I *will* get back to you - trust me.
As for carriers - all U.S. carriers suck (I can't speak for other countries). Period. Some suck in different ways and orders of magnitude, but all suck in at least some fashion be it coverage, call quality, customer (dis)service, pricing, or plans (at least 3 required by law, some cover all 5). "Hi, we're [carrier]. We cover every square inch of the country, with the exception of areas more than 1 mile from a major interstate, the states of Montana and Maine, and odd little pockets where you can *see* three different cell towers but have only 'Emergency calls only' signal coverage."
[deep breath]
ok, rant off. don't get me started on the whole DTV transition.
JeffH on June 26, 2009 8:12 AMIn my entire programming departement (54 people) I only know of one that owns an iPhone.
JM on June 26, 2009 8:21 AM@Rarst: The main point I was trying to make is that it's not the features which set the iPhone apart from other cell phones (released previous to the iPhone), but how these features are presented to the user. Most smart phones can do all the things I've listed; it's just that most people can't be bothered to actually figure out how to do them on Windows Mobile, or on Symbian. My dad won't learn how to use Opera mini (much less install it if it's not already on his phone), but he'll use Safari on the iPhone.
LKM on June 26, 2009 9:00 AMuhm, this post shows you never had a real smartphone before did you? especialyl sentences like "Consider all the myriad devices that the iPhone 3GS can sub for, and in some cases, outright replace" and "Oh yeah, and I heard you can make phone calls with it, too. Like any general purpose computer, it's a jack of all trades."
nothing about the iphone is new to me - been using smart phones since 2005 so umm.. it was not a particularly exciting new experience when i tried iphone 2.0 for a few weeks
sorry just my opinion :)
cmon_ on June 26, 2009 9:02 AMYour predictions are not as bold as you make them sound to be. I think you're late on the bandwagon.
knghtB on June 26, 2009 9:43 AMYou know what's funny? Seeing the same Slashdot style comments that were seen when the iPod first came out.
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/1816257&tid=107
"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."
Meanwhile completely Missing The Point.
Geeks who care about things that Android/WM has over iPhone are an infinitesimally small part of the market.
James on June 26, 2009 9:47 AMtake. it. easy.
the iPhone is the AOL of the internet now. walled gardens are not revolutionary, and the apple platform is very much a development AND deloyment great wall of china. censoring the NIN app (one of many, many, many examples)? srsly? oh, and i *only* have to buy a mac to develop?
@ordnas: android = lag, lag, shitty app, lag, lag, where's the bluetooth?
Wow, so we're talking about rev 3 of the iPhone, and you're going to compare it to rev 1 of android? You obviously haven't looked at it since 1.5 was released (aka Cupcake). No more lag, plenty of very GOOD apps... The Bluetooth also supports A2DP and AVRCP now, btw. The iPhone, not so much.
Gr8Ray on June 26, 2009 10:21 AMI'm with you on this one Jeff. Don't really like Apple, but I was suckered and got the original and it was the most awesome device I ever owned.
Being someone with god awful vision, and being able to zoom in on my e-mails and web pages, it was awesome. I'll be getting a 3GS shortly, and an iMac, and begin learning Objective-C. Not that I have an amazing idea nd will strike at rich, but I think its a matter of time before companies start demanding iPhone apps for their web apps and it's time to start learning.
It truly is an awesome device. I know people out there think people who buy them are suckers or just apple loyalist, but until you really try one and compare to a typical phone, you just won't get it.
Hell, I can play SPACE ACE on it, and it looks amazing.
Anonymous on June 26, 2009 10:33 AMAgree with all of the post from a user's perspective, but I can't wait to read the rant that will result if Jeff ever tries to write an app (in Objective C), and then get the damn thing onto his phone, and then get it on to just ONE other person's phone.
Daniel Earwicker on June 26, 2009 10:34 AM
I am sure it is an important product and it is sexy, works relatively well etc. However; it really is way over hyped in the big picture and people get a skewed image based on their limited locale.
For example, Nokia had 40 times more units sold last year, and that is little bit less than 40% of the market. So, iPhone is controlling about 0.4% of the market in yearly units sold. As share of all phones out there in circulation its market share can't really be even mentioned. I know one person who has an iPhone - that's it.
I know the market share comparison is unfair, but it underlines the scope of the hype out there. I would like to own an iPhone for sure but I really can't justify its price, like I can't justify any Apple PC/laptop, or iPod price. On top of that the great majority of people just don't need what the iPhone offers, but I guess being the Rolex of the phone world is not too bad place to be in with cheap imitators and all.
Tero on June 26, 2009 10:56 AMI'm making the leap to iPhone myself, for basically the same reasons, and made the decision shortly before reading this post. I went back to read your article about the original iPhone, and lo and behold, I had just started using a Samsung Blackjack at the same time, thought it would be overkill, and ended up getting hooked on ubiquitous mobile Internet.
No wonder I read this blog.
Ben J on June 26, 2009 11:22 AM"Proprietary handset? So is every other handset. Locked in to a single vendor? Everyone signs a multi-year contract. One company controlling your entire experience? ..."
forgot to comment on this one... i've yet to sign a contract with any phone company.. on prepaid always :) though i might as well be on one as i've always used the same provider, somehow they keep offering the best mobile internet prices since 2004 (i know that as i've been paying for and using their internet service since then, as it's fucking great to have internet anywhere, web browsing, irc, remote desktop and so on; then in 2005 i realized i could have it on my phone instead of using the phone as a modem via bluetooth). and if they wanted to control my "entire experience", i'd tell them to fuck off..
cmon_ on June 26, 2009 11:40 AM..of course not just irc but other IM too (msn icq yahoo are the ones i use and all worked on my SMART phones since 2005) :P
cmon_ on June 26, 2009 11:43 AM@Usman:
"Are you saying there is no penality of starting as a MAC Developer, just simple statistics, i can buy a good machine for £500 and can build whatever in MS products and for MAC i have to buy a shiny mac to just start getting my hands on!! lolz you must be living some other world mate :( sorry to awake you lolz"
You can buy a Mac for £499 and build whatever in Xcode. To develop for Windows you have to buy a PC to just start getting your hands on [sic].
Your argument being?
Dav on June 26, 2009 11:44 AMI love how many people who live outside the US decry the prevasivness of western culture, political views etc...and then get upset that Apple isn't known/available in XYZ country.
Why does Apple have to be successfull on a global level? Unless you are an Apple stockholder/investor you shouldn't give a care. It's still a good product...will/has someone make/made a better one...sure probably.
As for WM...uhm when was the last version released? Don't they have to make a specific version for each hardware platform? That to me sounds like an epic failure.
Android probably has the potential for taking mindshare from the iPhone but I think MS has totally missed this boat and doesn't stand a chance barring some miracle.
Ryan on June 26, 2009 11:58 AM@Ryan
>Why does Apple have to be successfull on a global level?
Of course, it doesn't. It is quite successful as it is.
So why does fanboys from Apple home market must shout how it is going to dominate and punch dead much larger and experienced companies? :)
Rarst on June 26, 2009 12:03 PMThe comments to this entry are closed.
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