Mobile Executives on the iPhone's Software Distribution

[MacRumors]

Mobile executives at a Silicon Valley roundtable discussion exchanged some colorful comments about the iPhone and its impact on the mobile space. Some application developers, in particular, have been very pleased with the distribution model provided by Apple.

Pandora Media's free Radio application [App Store] acheived 350,000 installations on the iPhone within the first 6 days. Pandora plans on monetizing their iPhone application through ads in the future. In contrast, over the past 18 months, Pandora has only achieved 12,000 paid monthly subscriptions through all other mobile platforms. Apple is apparently the only provider that will allow developers to offer a free ad-supported distribution model.

Facebook and Loopt have also seen impressive adoption over the course of a week. Loopt claims the average iPhone user is 47 times more active on their network than other platforms.

When discussing the promise of Google's Android mobile platform, some developers were skeptical about the experience:

"I need Android like I need a hole in the head," said Pandora's Conrad, picturing it as "another OS platform that sits on top of buggy firmware, with devices with hundreds of manufacturers, with different characteristics."

Meanwhile, Loopt's CEO was optimistic at the relative openness of the Android platform, as compared to the iPhone platform.

Apple has been undergoing considerable criticism from developers about the ongoing non disclosure agreement (NDA). The NDA is preventing developers from publicly discussing iPhone development and is also holding up a number of iPhone programming books from being published.



Article Link

[gcmexico]

"like I need a hole in the head"...lol

[NewSc2]

I wish I could submit a "neutral" vote. Positive for the reception of the iPhone platform and iTunes distribution system, and negative for Apple's NDA.

[uncleSmurf]

a hole in the head haha

[megfilmworks]

Way to go AAPL

[Xtal]

Apple is still making changes to the API - adding push notification support for applications for instance. Perhaps Apple wants all this to be in a final state before the first books are published.

[dosequis]

I can get on both sides of this fence, but it appears that Apple has done something right. Apples products work *more* flawlessly because it is software developed for a specific hardware set.

[FuuFuu]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

[url=http://www.macrumors.com][img]

Apple has been undergoing considerable criticism from developers about the ongoing non disclosure agreement (NDA). The NDA is preventing developers from publicly discussing iPhone development and is also holding up a number of iPhone programming books from being published.



Article Link

i gotta say, Apple is one good company. i love how they work

[wonderbread57]

Google really pissed me off when they put a gag order on the Android development team and made the most recent SDK for the OS only available to 50 developers in a contest and under NDA. REALLY OPEN SOUNDING HUH? Screw Android.

[Littleodie914]

Criticism over the NDA? People are still following that?

[whooleytoo]

Pandora is (AFAIK) US only, so the 350K downloads is even more impressive.

[Sky Blue]

Originally Posted by whooleytoo

Pandora is (AFAIK) US only, so the 350K downloads is even more impressive.

I wonder how many will continue to use it when ads pop up.

[slicecom]

Originally Posted by whooleytoo

Pandora is (AFAIK) US only, so the 350K downloads is even more impressive.

So is Loopt.

[twoodcc]

this is good and all, but i where's my iphone programming book!?

[ChrisA]

Originally Posted by twoodcc

this is good and all, but i where's my iphone programming book!?

You get it free when you download the iPhone SDK. I would not fault Apple for lack of documentation, they've got kind of the other problem

[plumbingandtech]

Originally Posted by ChrisA

You get it free when you download the iPhone SDK. I would not fault Apple for lack of documentation, they've got kind of the other problem

He means (i think) 3rd party iphone books are being held up from being released because of the NDA, an NDA that covers a released SDK.

I'm not saying who or what is right, but if I were apple I would bend over to get the book writers a pass on the NDA to get more people interested in programming the iphone SDK.

[thecartoonguy]

Would I have to turn in my Apple card if I said if I could give a crap about any more iPhone news? Sorry I have a bad cold and I'm cranky.

[CBJammin103]

Originally Posted by Conrad

I need Android like I need a hole in the head...

Zing!

[pohl]

Originally Posted by thecartoonguy

Would I have to turn in my Apple card if I said if I could give a crap about any more iPhone news?

Of course not, because that phrase means that you do care.

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by twoodcc

this is good and all, but i where's my iphone programming book!?

http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-iPho..._bxgy_b_text_b



http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-iPho...6BT39J00TJ67KG



http://www.amazon.com/iPhone-Action-...pd_sim_b_1_img



http://www.amazon.com/iPhone-Develop...ref=pd_sim_b_2



http://www.amazon.com/iPhone-Open-Ap...ref=pd_sim_b_2

[diamond.g]

Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer

<a bunch of books>

None of those books are shipping. As they are all waiting on the NDA to be lifted. So we are back at square 1...

[Fabio_gsilva]

I really can´t see a valid reason for Apple to keep the NDA after the public release of the SDK.

Lifting the NDA would immensely help all the developers community to understand this beast and how to deal with it's horns...

I believe that it is only a matter of time for apple to extinguish this NDA... maybe all this crap about SJ health made them forget about the need to lift the NDA...

[gnasher729]

Originally Posted by Fabio_gsilva

I really can´t see a valid reason for Apple to keep the NDA after the public release of the SDK.

Lifting the NDA would immensely help all the developers community to understand this beast and how to deal with it's horns...

I believe that it is only a matter of time for apple to extinguish this NDA... maybe all this crap about SJ health made them forget about the need to lift the NDA...

There was no "public release of the SDK". If you read the publicly available posts on the Apple Cocoa mailing lists you would know that the NDA is still there, not because it was forgotten, but fully intentionally; including severe warnings from moderators that going against the NDA may be investigated. I can only guess, but my guess would be that Apple management and developers have discussed the benefits of the NDA, and the disadvantages of having less communication between third party developers.

I know as well as Apple developers how easy or hard iPhone development is for someone who knows C, Objective-C, Cocoa and who isn't afraid to ask Cocoa and Objective-C questions when needed; and I know that Apple believes the NDA is more important for them. You can draw whatever conclusions you like.

[ElecEagle]

Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer

http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-iPho..._bxgy_b_text_b

"This title has not yet been released"

http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-iPho...6BT39J00TJ67KG

"This title has not yet been released"

http://www.amazon.com/iPhone-Action-...pd_sim_b_1_img

"This title has not yet been released"

http://www.amazon.com/iPhone-Develop...ref=pd_sim_b_2

"This title has not yet been released"

http://www.amazon.com/iPhone-Open-Ap...ref=pd_sim_b_2

"Temporarily out of stock." (...and doesn't technically cover the official SDK).

'Nuff said.

[Aznsensation45]

hopefully all that criticism will eventually lead to apple leisuring of the polices...