iPhone SDK: Great if you like Cocoa, but what about us?
Date : 2008 03 07 Category : Tech & Development
Ajaxian
There has been a touch of news about the iPhone SDK from Apple. Most of the press believe that the iPhone SDK exceeds developer expectations.
As an iPhone user I am quite happy. I look forward to email / contact / calendar push. I think that the tool chain looked fantastic (debugger, simulator, IDE, GUI-builder) and I am sure that I will be seeing fantastic new applications when June comes around (waiting for June again?????). Skype. IM. You name it (as long as Apple approves!)
There are some that don’t like the 30% tax, and Russell Beattie has some thoughts too:
I was right about the sandbox, though there’s a bit more access to hardware than I thought, there’s no VoIP over cellular or ability to interact with the Dock, no ability to change the UI. So though it’s not a technical sandbox, it’s an arbitrary Apple approved one instead.
Also right about the Orwellian doublespeak: Jobs called only being able to distribute your apps via the iTunes store “the best deal going to distribute applications in the mobile space.” Uh-huh. Who wants to be able to put downloadable install files on their own websites? Exchanging the carrier-only distribution model for an Apple-only one doesn’t do much for me. I mean, imagine if you could only install applications on your computer via Apple or Microsoft… it’s the same thing, no matter how “convenient” it may sound.
Overall though, I am happy. I would love to see how many people pick up Objective-C and Cocoa now. We should keep an eye on the book sales. James Duncan Davidson will be happy :)
But what about Mobile Safari? What about some Cocoa JS love? Apple started out showing off the Web applications for the iPhone, so how about enabling more in that development stream? Some may enjoy learning something new, but others want to just stay in the growing Ajax universe. With the ability to hide the browser chrome, access to Touch APIs, and a few others…. and we can do a lot.
During the event, the VP of Phone Software told us that the next update will include new features for the web apps, so we will see (Thanks to Arn of MacRumors for letting me know).
At this point though maybe Steve wants to shut down that world a little? This is his chance to get a ton of developers on the full OSX platform. Once they learn Cocoa and the tool chain, some percentage of the developers will go on to build desktop applications too!
Interesting times. What do you think? Getting ready to use those square brackets?