

Why we don't develop for platforms other than iPhone - niyazpk
http://www.thisismobility.com/blog/2009/04/11/please-dont-mistake-my-apathy-for-a-lack-of-understanding/http://www.thisismobility.com/blog/2009/04/11/please-dont-mistake-my-apathy-for-a-lack-of-understanding/

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dejb
Repost from comment by Tom Hume (mobile developer from UK)

> Whilst I don’t believe that you’re blinded by iPhone-lurve, it’s not the
> only game in town. There are profitable businesses running across other
> devices, and have been for years....

I think it's a bit of a USA vs Rest of the World thing. For the US (and
specifically Silicon Valley) to suddenly wake up to the potential of mobile
and then decide that they are the only game in town and nothing else of value
exists is a bit off.

~~~
pavlov
Indeed. There's no shortage of success stories in mobile development before
Apple or Google came along, but they mostly took place a long way from Silicon
Valley.

In 2004, I was working as a graphics artist for a Finnish startup that was in
the business of making Java games for phones. The company had started with
three founders two years earlier, and when I got there, they employed over 30
people and kept growing. They had struck deals with operators across Europe,
and game sales were taking off in a serious way. (Ordinary people were buying
millions of units of over-the-air distributed Java software for phones already
in 2004 -- but I guess those that were successful in this market were not
terribly interested in attracting competitors by making a lot of noise about
it.)

The games were good enough that everybody could be proud of the work. On the
best phones, the graphics and sound quality was on the level of Amiga or
386+VGA PCs. But more importantly, the games scaled down graciously to the
most primitive color-screen phones with resolutions circa 128*80 pixels:
thanks to a well-thought out set of APIs, an asset workflow designed for
scalability and an extensive database of device capabilities, games could be
easily built for dozens of devices.

I ended up leaving that job fairly quickly because I figured out I'd rather be
pushing around millions of pixels on the GPU with code, rather than pushing
around individual pixels in Photoshop manually. But I know the company was
acquired by a large American corporation not long after, and I think the
founders ended up very well rewarded for having created that rare combination
of technical competence (the APIs and development process), marketing (the
relationships with international operators) and artistic integrity (the games
looked good and played well).

~~~
gtufano
True, definitely true. What the difference is, IMHO, that with iPhone and
AppStore a single individual can develop something in relatively easy way and
have a very good distribution channel. The toolchain is reasonable and Obj-C
is fun (well, not fun like python but really funnier than Symbian C++, who
tried it know what I mean). Ovi Store (last time I checked) will not even
accept app from individual doing development part-time, without having a
company. So, for me and many many other it is a dead game. Nokia does other
very interesting things (N810 and maemo comes to mind) but Ovi store is a no
brainer (at least for me). I'm talking as an european that had only Nokia
phones in the last 15 years and uses an N95 as main phone (and an iPhone for
apps and browsing).

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chez17
I do some web design for a company that makes iPhone apps and he made the
point to me that the biggest issue is hardware. His company is small, two
developers, and they couldn't be half as productive if they needed to test for
a thousand different hardware configurations. With the iPhone, you are
guaranteed that there is only one or two configurations and you know exactly
what they are. I imagine a lot of these companies are small groups of
developers in similar situations.

Also, people with iPhones are people with money. Not a bad demographic to
develop for.

~~~
ja2ke
Replace every instance of "iPhone" with "Macintosh" and you've also to a large
degree explained the continued success of small Mac shareware houses like
Panic and Delicious Monster.

------
wallflower
Many of my friends who own an iPhone do not care who wrote it or how the
application was written - they just want to be entertained or connected.

Salient comment from Jason Devitt of SkyDeck.com (proprietor of cloud-based
mirror of your mobile phone's information)

> Downloading applications for a Nokia phone is not obvious, not easy, and
> often no fun at all. It’s confined to people who in your words are ‘more
> tech-savvy’ and ‘more likely to try things out.’

>I have many friends whom I do not consider ‘tech savvy’ and who never
downloaded an application for a mobile phone in their lives - until they
bought an iPhone.

Nokia VP New Markets Anssi Vanjoki talking about their Ovi store. It will have
a feature the iPhone App Store could use/implement.

>It’s different from other stores because of its relevance engine. It learns
from your own use, the location where you are, and your interaction with your
friends. You will not get tens of thousands of crap applications. You will get
what is relevant to you.

[http://venturebeat.com/2009/04/02/nokia-aims-to-prove-
there-...](http://venturebeat.com/2009/04/02/nokia-aims-to-prove-there-is-
mobile-demand-beyond-the-iphone/)

------
nuclear_eclipse
I find it interesting that nowhere in that article does the author even admit
that the G1/Android Market exists, considering that the Android SDK is quite
excellent IMO, allowing super-easy (basically plug-and-play) development and
debug testing on your own phone (no cert bullshit to deal with for testing)
and from what I've seen, the Market is a pretty good place to get into now
that paid apps are available...

~~~
mechanical_fish
From a Gartner report, via the Guardian:

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/mar/13/iphone...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/mar/13/iphone-
android-smartphone-sales)

In Q4 2008 Apple sold 4.1m iPhones (10.7% of the smartphone market), and
Google is estimated to have sold 0.64m, or about 1.7% of the market.

Gartner's estimate for Google might be a bit low -- other sources claim over
1M G1 _preorders_ \-- but the conclusion is clear: Apple still claims only a
fraction of the smartphone market, and Android claims a fraction of _that_. So
it's natural that an article like this one would focus on the question of "why
aren't you developing for Symbian (47% marketshare), RIM (19.5%), or Windows
Mobile (12.4%)?" rather than "why aren't you developing for Android?" (which
has a 2 to 4% marketshare, 20 to 40% of Apple's market.) Symbian, RIM, and
Windows Mobile are the elephants in this room.

~~~
evanmoran
And that is just for Q4 2008. Iphone sales are 30m worldwide.

------
systems
> Is the Nokia store supposed to challenge Apple? Or Microsoft supposed to? Or
> RIM?

Yes, Nokia, MS and RIM I can be sure, are trying and will continue to try to
challenge the iPhone. I personally work for a large company that standardized
on windows mobile for the sales team. I am also sure that in time Android will
be a strong competitor.

I also know many people who picked a Nokia Eseries because it's cheaper. I
know for sure that my next phone won't be an iPhone. So in many way I am
almost sure that Nokia is well positioned to compete with the iPhone. And that
the iPhone dominance wont last for long

~~~
ohhmaagawd
I have some contrary anecdotal evidence. I have seen/know dozens of people who
carry their work phone (usually a blackberry). And then they carry the phone
they really want along with it: the iPhone.

Windows mobile is a joke. Hardly anyone installs apps with it or uses it for
anything other than a phone/calendar/contacts. Android could be strong though.

------
msie
Now if only MS and SONY would let the little guy develop for their consoles
(the XNA platform doesn't count). They make it so hard for an individual to
acquire an SDK (firstly, you have to be a real game company). Are they making
the same mistake as the big mobile players? If only Apple would enter the
console market and shake things up.

~~~
shimi
Apple went into the Mobile Market business only because they knew that its
standing still.

The gaming market is soldiering proudly!!!

------
gollywog
Is developing for android similar/as hard as developing for symbian, or more
on par with the iphone?

~~~
hboon
iPhone.

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TweedHeads
Word by word, the best response to why WE don't develop for platforms other
than iPhone.

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c00p3r
There are one very simple answer - screen size along with ARM arch is what
matters.

Or just simply - if you cannot watch ordinary porn clips on certain mobile
device (small screen, slow cpu) this device worthless for developer. =)

iPhone simply outnumbered Nokia N-series and E-series handsets which are worth
of development.

