iPhone SDK: Get Over It
Whilst many Mac developers have bemoaned the lack of a “proper” iPhone SDK, it appears that the web developers have wondered what all the fuss was about and just got on with it. Apple has created an online directory of iPhone optimised web apps, which has grown to over 200 hundred entries, in less than a week. Perhaps we Mac developers need to be less afraid of change. We petulantly worried about Carbon vs. Cocoa before realising there was a place for both in the same app. So perhaps we need to accept web development as part of our necessary armoury of tools, for OS X development beyond the Mac.
Presenting web tools as a “proper” iPhone SDK was patronising to developers at WWDC ’07, and symptomatic of Apple’s “Year of Hubris”. But developers need to accept that this is the reality of the situation. We also need to accept that iPhone updates will delete third party hacks, close loop holes and possibly render the phones inoperable.
The iPhone Elite Team have released a way to unlock “bricked” iPhones, having accepted the reality of the situation. John Gruber has it completely correct when he says that there is a “misguided mindset” in thinking Apple “screwed them over” with the 1.1.1 update.
As a developer, if you want to bring your app to the iPhone, you either need to add web development to your tool-chest or get involved in the hacking process. However, making money out of that app on the iPhone maybe a tricky business model.
My prediction is that, as with iPod games, there will be a coterie of developers who will be allowed to bring Apple sanctioned apps to the iPhone and iPod Touch, delivered through the iTunes Store.
