I couldn’t think of a better title. Or maybe it should’ve been…

Why I Think the iPhone is Important

But hey, it’s my blog. I do what I want.

Nonsense aside, I truly believe that the iPhone is making great strides in the mobile space. For one, I feel like it is the first smartphone that makes people want to buy one. Have you ever been that excited about a new Palm smartphone (maybe except the Centro, which came out after the iPhone)? There have been some pretty cool phones, especially HTC ones, but the exposure of those are limited to gadget freaks. As the iPhone gains popularity, the mobile platform will be more widespread and available than ever.

In addition, I feel that it is improving the state of mobile platforms not only through sheer proliferation, but also giving people a great platform to develop on.

“The big advantage Apple has with the iPhone is that they control the entire product, top to bottom. The case, the chipsets, the OS, the user interface.”…. “Google’s dependence on hardware and carrier partners puts the final product out of their control — and into the control of companies whose histories have shown them to be incompetent at design and hostile to users.”

Now, I’ve heard many people whine that this is disadvantageous to the user. Yes, you’re at the mercy of Apple. Yes, it’s a closed SDK. But the major advantage of this is that because the specs are exactly the same across all iPhones, superior applications can be made for them.

I was really excited about Android was announced. It was a great idea. It has become apparent, though, that this model is flawed. Why?

Developers working on android apps are put in a position where they need to guess and program for different physical UI scenarios (none of which actually exist in the wild, yet):

Does the target phone have physical buttons?
What is the button configuration?
Does it have a touch screen?
What about different resolutions?
What sensors do you code for? camera? accelerometer? proximity? touchpad?

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As an Android developer, I feel like you have to take into account of these factors. You need to degrade gracefully, have switches for a bunch of features depending on hardware. I feel like you can make a leaner, more powerful, robust application when you know what you’re working with.

Combining a visually superior UI and a consistent development platform, iPhone and iPhone apps will become wildly popular and push the mobile environment to the next level.

Shabowza.