iPhone SDK, the New Walled Garden?

Thursday’s announcement from Apple was pretty impressive. I never expected to see such a complete execution of the SDK program. Apple really looked at this from a 360 degree angle and nailed almost everything:

  • App Development
  • Testing and debugging
  • Deployment, distribution and discoverability
  • Business model
  • VC funding for developers
  • Rich developer program and support

Apple’s approach to this makes anyone else look pretty pale. Compare this to Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile or any carrier’s development program. Almost everywhere else one has to deal with various parties and many restrictions before they can get their application on the phone. Apple has really offered a one stop shop to the eager developers.

However for me the fun part kinda stops there. The early excitement has somewhat waned at this point. I am sure you all know what I am talking about. The fact that Apple will not allow 3rd party background processes to run on the iPhone. This means that users cannot switch back and forth between applications seamlessly. Once you switch applications the previous one shuts down. This is a very realistic scenario where users can receive calls, text/email messages while using an application.

They had AIM guys during the keynote speech. They are a perfect example of apps which will be useless in this model. In the current model AIM will only run once you are within the app. If you decide to do anything else, the app will shut down and you are logged out. This is a serious issues for a bevy of 3rd party applications which need background processing. Not everyone is going to write stand-alone games for playing tetris or spore.

From what I have read, the reasons cited are that Apple does not want to have many applications taking over the background processes and making the iPhone slow. In addition they have published a list of limitations for app developers. These limitations maybe straightforward but the underlying message is that Apple is the overall “GateKeeper”. They control what goes onto your iPhone.

This is exactly the part that isn’t sitting well with me. The more I think about the subject I am starting to draw parallels between Apple and the big bad carriers. Within the proposed model Apple retains control of how the 3rd party application runs, what it provides, how it does business and how it is distributed. What happens if a 3rd party developer wants to write a RSS reader supported by advertisements? It will have to run in the background, probably use good amount of the bandwidth and will be free (supported via ads). Such an app will violate many of Apple’s rules.

Is Apple the new carrier? Is Apple’s iPhone SDK the new “Walled Garden“? Let me know what you all think.

In conclusion I must say that I am surely impressed by the overall SDK program. However not quite impressed with the direction of the SDK. I think the user should be in control. Ultimately they get to decide what gets installed on their iPhone. Once Apple sells the device they no longer should control what runs on that…

March 8th, 2008 in Apple, Mobile

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