A follow up to In the Future, We Will Be iPhones

I’ve had a few discussions with a couple of friends about the my post and the iPhone in general. More often than not, the reaction towards the iPhone is negative:

Give people the choice. Never think that a closed platform is an advantage. (via ericgar)

I still maintain that having a closed platform initially is good. I really feel that the mobile platform has taken far too long to take off. It really is a very powerful platform that will definitely change the way we work.

But I truly believe that if they had an open SDK, there’s a big risk of it stalling the mobile platform even more. Hear me out The number of applications initially will be relatively small, just because it’s a young device/SDK. Because of this, the impression that these first few apps make really do matter. Applications like Loopt I think will really wow people, and I think he caliber of the first batch of apps should have this effect to jolt the software industry to think harder about mobile devices.

In one of the stackoverflow podcasts I listened to today (don’t laugh), Joel Spolsky shares my sentiment. He describes the difficulty of programming for devices that may or may not have touch styluses, that may or may not have GPS, that may have a wide screen or a slim screen. That affects the overall quality and leanness of the application.

He goes on further to say that Google Android might fail because it is open. He speculates that a lot of people who are excited about Android are not the general population, but sup3r 1337 h4×0rz who will be more interested in porting rxvt over to Android than they are creating solid, useful applications. I tend to agree. I’m not saying there won’t be amazing apps for Android, but the fact that only good application developers that are developing software for consumersare allowed to release software in the AppStore make it the rule, not the exception.

There are some others saying that Apple could have done a lot more with the iPhone. They could have included more apps by default, they could’ve included video conferencing, they’ve could’ve done a lot. That’s absolutely true. I thought it would’ve been really awesome if they included video conferencing. But I’m not sore about that. Why? If you look at the smart phone market right now, what’s there that is as exciting? Windows Mobile hasn’t done anything exciting in how many years?¹ Palm software is butt ugly. Blackberry software, industrious and boooring.

So people can complain all they want about the iPhone software/firmware, but it’s the only one that has stepped up and created more than a slight buzz amongst the general public. They can say they’re not treating users right, but don’t the users of Blackberry/Palm/Wndows Mobile deserve a little care from their software developers? They aren’t treating their customers right if they leave their software stagnant and un-user friendly. Windows Mobile is on their 6th version, and its nowhere even close to where the iPhone is with its second version.²

All that said, I hope that the iPhone SDK will not remain closed. To grow, to progress, Apple will have no choice BUT to open the SDK up. Being closed off will hurt them like it has before. I think Apple is doing the right thing for now, in this situation. But once they’ve made their point, they have to adjust.

Shabadoowop³

1. Thanks Kunal [↩]
2. Ok, yes, that’s not entirely fair; Windows Mobile has been out much longer, but it still stands [↩]
3. @ericgar That’s how genius’ sign their posts [↩]