Apple Rebrands 'iPhone Dev Center' as 'iOS Dev Center'

[MacRumors]

In an unsurprising move, Apple has rebranded its developer program and portal for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch as the iOS Dev Center. The change from its previous "iPhone Dev Center" name follows a similar shift in the name of the devices' operating system made back in June.

Apple notes in a brief news posting that the iOS Developer Program offers the exact same benefits and resources as the iPhone Developer Program. The basic iOS Developer Program is priced at $99 per year, with a free program available for higher education institutions and a $299 program available for enterprise customers looking to develop proprietary, in-house applications for their business.

Article Link: Apple Rebrands 'iPhone Dev Center' as 'iOS Dev Center'

 

[ct2k7]

Was it always $300 for the enterprise dev account?

 

[pmz]

Really hoping for an iPad 4.2 beta soooooon.

 

[Sijmen]

Was it always $300 for the enterprise dev account?

It was last time I looked, a month or so ago.

 

[kdarling]

The downside of charging people $100 a year, is that developers cannot just give their homegrown apps to their friends and family for free. Or even if they just want an app for themselves.

"Test" devices have to revalidated once a year. So, each year, a developer has to pump in another $100 so they can re-register all the desired "test" devices, so their "free" app will continue to work.

Over the years, this gets really expensive for the casual home developer!

To get around this yearly expiration, many developers instead put their little app up for free on the App Store. Even though it's just crap, or for their family, or whatever. But at least then they can all download and use it forever.

(On other phones, there are ways to sideload apps without having to pay $100 a year just for them to work.)

 

[aristotle]

(On other phones, there are ways to sideload apps without having to pay $100 a year just for them to work.)

Many Android devices have to be rooted (analogous to a jailbreak on the iPhone) to load "homebrew" apps. So either way, you can side load apps but you have to hack the phone first unless if you insist on using an ancient WinMo or Nokia phone.

 

[kdarling]

Many Android devices have to be rooted (analogous to a jailbreak on the iPhone) to load "homebrew" apps. So either way, you can side load apps but you have to hack the phone first

No hacking needed.

Even those with crippled AT&T phones can sideload apps with the:

Android Central Sideload Wonder Machine

unless if you insist on using an ancient WinMo or Nokia phone.

Hey, it's been great being able to give away permanently sideloaded family apps for WinMo, Blackberry, and WebOS all this time.

Doing the same for iOS users is a real pain in the butt... and costs.

 

[JangoFett124]

Now all that I can think of to rename is Mobile Me's "Find My iPhone".

 

[mrpuffy]

I has the basic developer pack for a year it just didnt cut it, It worth spending 300$ if your seriouse about getting into it

although the basic is good enough if your just getting into it!

 

[Rocketman]

A "real" developer is not going to complain about a $100 a year charge as many other tools they use charge more than that.

The folks who are put off by it are casual programmers, narrowcasters, and hobbiests. Perhaps Apple could come up with a way to satisfy those folks without a lot of hassle and a heavy hit to the lower end of their "professional" developers.

Now that Apple and iOS are "mass-market", the whining from the price sensitive crowd is likely to go from a dull roar to a loud scream.

Rocketman

 

[Lefty29]

No hacking needed.

Even those with crippled AT&T phones can sideload apps with the:

Android Central Sideload Wonder Machine


Hey, it's been great being able to give away permanently sideloaded family apps for WinMo, Blackberry, and WebOS all this time.

Doing the same for iOS users is a real pain in the butt... and costs.

Why not just jailbreak your iDevice? That is the entire purpose of jailbreaking is to be able to run code that Apple doesn't sign.

 

[knightlie]

A "real" developer is not going to complain about a $100 a year charge as many other tools they use charge more than that.

The folks who are put off by it are casual programmers, narrowcasters, and hobbiests. Perhaps Apple could come up with a way to satisfy those folks without a lot of hassle and a heavy hit to the lower end of their "professional" developers.

Now that Apple and iOS are "mass-market", the whining from the price sensitive crowd is likely to go from a dull roar to a loud scream.

Rocketman

I love how legitimate concerns about not being able to install your own programs on your own device without paying Apple is "price-sensitive whining." kdarling is completely correct, there needs to be a simple, free way for developers to install on their own devices without this stupid annual fee. I'm not interested in the App Store, but I want to write apps for myself - I can't. Perhaps I'm not "professional" enough.

/price-sensitive whining

 

[alexkrishnan]

jailbreakme.com


There is an entire section on the homepage of Cydia dedicated to tutorials on self-signing apps to run without a dev account.

I'm not saying that this makes what Apple is doing right, mind you. But it has saved me $198, +9.75% in tax.

 

[MattInOz]

I love how legitimate concerns about not being able to install your own programs on your own device without paying Apple is "price-sensitive whining." kdarling is completely correct, there needs to be a simple, free way for developers to install on their own devices without this stupid annual fee. I'm not interested in the App Store, but I want to write apps for myself - I can't. Perhaps I'm not "professional" enough.

/price-sensitive whining

One Dev Account can have up 100 devices right?
Not sure if this is in keeping with the rules but instead of going it alone could you start a homebrew developer club. So you could limit to 50 members and you each have two devices split the cost evenly. Set the rules early on what happens if some gets to the point of wanting to release an app, do you do it as a group or do they go out on their own.

That way you can bounce off each other share code, share apps to get feedback.