The iPhone SDK was released a couple of weeks ago and I waited for the dust to settle before posting anything about it.
Having read every possible article and tutorial about it, I strongly believe this device has everything to reshape the mobile landscape and define new quality standards.
Here are 5 reasons why the iPhone is a great platform, is not the best for developing mobile applications:
1. Unique Hardware Specs
The iPhone as an unique fixed hardware which is optimized for high performance 2D and 3D processing. In that regard the iPhone is more like a gaming console than any other handset.
With that kind of platform, developers can finally fine tune their application to run as fast as possible for the best user experience.
Competitor have multiple hardware platforms that runs across all range of mobile devices, making it very hard for developers to target their applications. Most of these handsets have poor graphic components and are not designed at the core for high-performance.
The combination of multi-touch technlogy, accelerated 3D and the accelerometer will unleash the creative of game developers and we’ll see new genre of gameplay.
2. iPhone OS
The iPhone OS is the state of the art of mobile OS. It shares the foundations and years of experience of Mac OS X.
The development tools that Apple provides are the exact same as the one for OS X. It’s an advanced development environment, that’s generally only available on gaming hardware.
In addition, all iPhone OS features are guarantee to work across all iPhone devices as opposed to the competition where the most interesting features are either optional (e.g.: hardware 3D, bluetooth, multimedia, location) or API incompatible between OS releases (e.g.: Nokia Symbian).
There are no limits on what part of the iPhone developers have access to; contacts, phone, camera, web content, bookmarks, video, audio, location, everything is free to be used. Whereas on most competitive handset (especially Java ones) applications run sandboxed, limiting what you can use (e.g.: phone calls).
These guarantees will allow developers to makes the most of their applications without the headache of downgrading it to support multiple devices versions.
3. Ubiquitous Connectivity
The iPhone is the true essence of a mobile device, ubiquitous connectivity with both EDGE and WiFi. You’re are always on.
But more important, every single iPhone comes with an affordable data plan that Apple has negotiated for you. That’s a huge differentiator.
With the competition, devices and data plans are generally sold separately. Thus, most mobile users are afraid of using connected applications because they never know exactly how much they going to pay, it’s just too confusing. As a developer, this is a real limitation for the broad adoption of your application (e.g.: networked games).
This is not the case with the iPhone, everything is included and unlimited, the carrier is (almost) out. This is one of the reason the iPhone is the number #1 device used to browse the web.
4. Business Model
With the App Store, the iPhone is the only device on the market that comes with an independent distribution channel and a appealing business model for developers.
Apple charges a fair price for broadcasting your application to million of users so you don’t have to do anything. Put your app on the store and you’ll get 70% of the revenues, period.
5. Users Love It
Mobile users don’t care about what kind of software their device run on (e.g.: Java, Symbian) but they do love a device, simply because it’s beautiful or simple to use; it makes they feel they belongs to a very special tribe.
Apple is a strong brand know by the public for their appealing consumer devices like iPods. Making people feel they are unique because they possess the device is a winning strategy and will increase its adoption.
Nobody can cite a single Nokia phone that users truly love. Nokia has so many phones that do so many different things that they are diluting their user base, instead of gathering them around an unique device.
Google Android will have the same problem, without a unique device, it’s nothing more than a piece of software like Symbian or Windows Mobile.
Comments
Well at all sounds great but:
1) How a phone with “unique hardware spec” can lack a GPS module?
2) SDK has a number of limitations http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2008/03/14/iphone-sdk-limitations-are-artificial/
3) WLAN works great, but no UMTS, in other word browsing on the phone is SLOW (if not done over WiFi)!
4) Check SDK limitation section and keep in mind that in 90% of the cases iPhone comes as a locked device!
5) Well this one is true.
1) Core Location is good enough for most usage, you don’t need a GPS.
2) Sure, most of them are imposed by Apple as guidelines, like on any gaming hardware. As soon as the market evolves, these limitations will dissapear. What the SDK has still more to offer than most handset on the market.
3) EDGE might be slow for browsing the web, but will be just enough for dedicated networked applications (such as games) where data is more packed.
4) See 2.
Great article but the headline has not enough catch. Something a bit controversal like “What is so damn different with the iPhone ?” might have driven more interest from both sides of the handset without damaging your text’s credibility. Something like “Why you should port your app to the iPhone ASAP” might also catch readers in a good way. KIU.
Fred you should discuss that very topic with Kari@techiteasy. His post about smartphone is a good complement of yours. Check it out here : http://tinyurl.com/2c2a4h
What about iPod Touch? Different devices, different capabilities, same SDK… This is not 100% headache free.
@cecil I’ll check that out.
@daudrain Yes, I know about that but this is an article about the iPhone and how it compares to other handset on the market.
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