iPhone SDK
June 12, 2007
So a lot of Mac developers are pissed because the iPhone SDK announced yesterday will actually be Web-based — i.e. the idea is that you build Web applications if you want to do iPhone apps. I fail to see what’s wrong with this, because Safari will allow interaction with the iPhone’s features — you can make calls, access contacts etc. What more could one ask for?
Had Apple chosen to build a ‘real’ SDK (i.e. using Objective C/Cocoa), only Mac developers would have been able to build iPhone applications — this way, and with the accompanying release of Safari for Windows, there are millions of developers who can (and will) build them.
About
This page contains a single entry from Stefan Tilkov's Random Stuff posted on June 12, 2007 8:19 AM. The previous post in this blog was On APP and GData. The next post in this blog is Should You Care about REST Advantages?. Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.
Comments
I couldn’t tell from the keynote whether the iphone would allow disconnected access to those web apps, but I strongly suspect not. Cingular’s network is OK, but not great and not available everywhere. It would be nice if there were a way to “download” a web app onto the phone, but obviously that implies a bunch of things (e.g., running everything that was on the web server on the phone) that are unlikely to happen. Without this, though, no network == no application.
Posted by: Baggy at June 12, 2007 4:17 PM | link
I would think they could run disconnected: http://thenewsroom.com/details/396043
Posted by: JMS at June 13, 2007 4:39 AM | link
google gears for iPhone Safari?
Posted by: jon at June 14, 2007 2:23 PM | link
Are you kidding me. Without an SDK real developers won’t even be able to consider it as a platform. Think out of the box. Web pages can’t do everything. This will ultimately lead to the devices demise, and alternatives like palm and microsoft will sell even better.
I was pumped until I learned no SDK. So I will now upgrade to the latest palm based Treo, thanks for making up my mind Apple!
Posted by: Kurt at June 22, 2007 8:55 PM | link
Then why bother with an iphone at all? The web based applications you mention already run on a lot of cell phones already.
Posted by: C_Sepulch at June 30, 2007 4:31 AM | link
The thing wrong with safari being the SDK is that it will be /too/ limiting for people to create the ‘Killer app.’ There is only so much you can do within the walls of safari.
That only Apple developers will create apps? That is your support for it? Why not both? If they offered a proper SDK, then Apple devs can create the killer apps, and everyone else can add to the pile. You’d have millions of people creating apps, and thousands of Apple devs creating even better ones.
Posted by: tony at July 2, 2007 10:25 PM | link
Perhaps I’m just terribly dense but I can’t even find basic (html/javascript) development guidelines anywhere. All I found was iPhoney but I’m on a PC. Perhaps installing Safari for Windows and NOT installing Flash is as close as I’ll get?
Posted by: mahalie at July 3, 2007 1:09 AM | link