The Next Device
The iPhone and its SDK inspire our imaginations. But maybe the thing in our imaginations is not this device, but the next device. There seems to be a general mood of frustration among developers stemming from the restrictions Apple is placing on third-party iPhone applications. As John Gruber points out today in his post, One App at a Time, the restrictions aren’t unreasonable considering the hardware. So maybe the angst and frustration we feel is coming from the fact that we have the tools in our hands and we finally have a real sense for this new platform and the possibilities are so clear to us but we have the wrong device. Maybe the thing that we’re all hungry for is not the iPhone, but something else. Something that’s a little less of a phone and not quite a laptop. When you read though the CocoaTouch documentation, do your imaginings end with a phone?
It’s important for us to be patient with Apple and with ourselves right now. This is something totally new and we need to take small steps to make the transition a smooth one. As developers, we have to completely re-conceptualize our idea of how an application should behave and how to engage users without a keyboard or mouse. We’ve been using the same model for software design since windowed GUIs were first introduced in the 80’s. We don’t know any different and we shouldn’t underestimate the challenges we’ll inevitably encounter. I can’t blame Apple for being so protective of their new platform. We have a lot to learn and so do they. Small steps, patience, a little bit of trust and compromise from both sides is going to be key to their and our success in this new endeavor.
But it’s hard to be patient when we’re all feeling so passionate. I look at this beautiful device and I read the documentation of its SDK and it makes me feel restless. I know that this is much more than a phone. But for now, all it is is a phone. It’s the iPhone. It’s not the next device. That will come next and there will be another after that. In the mean time, we have plenty to explore and have fun with. If you think about it, they’re giving us a lot. We’ll find out their next move soon enough.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Hi, I used to develop on Windows CE devices, now trying to port my GPS app to iPhone. It was interesting to read your concerns, but from my perspective working with iPhone seems like heaven. Even with the fundamental differences between M$ and Apple platforms (both desktop and handheld) not to mention the objective-c “something”, it is very relaxing to develop for this piece of hardware.
It is true that mobile development needs a certain shift in perspective, but again compared to the WinCE platform Apple seems to orient it’s device to a very usable direction.
(ah, and your posts helped a lot in understanding cocoa and obj-c, thanks)
April 9th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Hi Gellért. I like that word – relaxing – to describe developing on an Apple platform. That’s exactly how I feel about Objective-C, but can never quite explain