
The iPhone SDK Will Be Late - drm237
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ByteOfTheApple/blog/archives/2008/02/the_iphone_sdk.html
======
mercurio
Anybody waiting to get there hands on this? What are you using in the
meantime?

This should be a very attractive market to target for a small startup. Apple
will probably sell apps through itunes for 4.99 (or less), so you don't have
to worry about sales or distribution (and marketing becomes easier too). And
the huge "how do we charge people for this cool thing we made?" issue just
completely disappears.

~~~
serhei
> This should be a very attractive market to target for a small startup.

Don't call it "a small startup". A "small startup" in Mac software terms is
some guy, or two guys, or three guys ("indie developers") who apply for an LLC
online and then publish the app. I'm pretty sure this will also apply to the
iPhone.

A startup in the sense of YCombinator is overkill for this type of stuff. It's
arguably necessary for a web app to be backed by seed funding, due to the
large numbers of things that need to be kept track of and pulled off. It's
definitely necessary for some app that relies on corporate deals to be a
startup backed by funding. Why would indie developers working on an app waste
time moving to Cambridge/Silicon Valley and doing demos to get bought out by
Google / have excessive amounts of money get pumped into them by later stage
investors? Sure, dinner with the other founders is nice, but is it all worth
the resulting obligations (keep running the startup and doing nothing else,
accept investments, get big or get bought out, etc..)

If there's something I'm missing, can someone weigh in on what the _point_
would be?

That said, I can't wait to get my hands on the SDK, and am using nothing else
in the meantime. I want to get my foot in the door as soon as possible.

~~~
boucher
Well, I would argue that its possible that "small startup" could mean a wide
range of things, not simply the kind of company Y Combinator tends to fund.

I would also argue that an iPhone app company is at least as likely to be a
successful Y Combinator startup as just about anyone else they've funded.

It's a mistake to assume that since indie Mac software has traditionally been
written by one guy with an LLC, that all iPhone software will be written that
way. For one, the iPhone is a completely different market, much more akin to
the iPod than the mac.

------
wallflower
I remember reading an article in Time about a shareware author who was
grossing 600k a year from registrations for his software product. I forget
which niche the product was in but the point here is, among the
PocketInformant/WebIS big PDA apps there will be plenty of room for
independent/small companies to thrive. Build a product that people will use,
support it, and do well.

