Comments on: Gazing Into a Smartphone Crystal Ball: 2010 Edition

By: Elia Freedman

Elia Freedman — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:30:14 +0000

Developer environments are very subjective. Some developers prefer Objective-C and love Apple’s approach. Others love Java and prefer Google’s approach.

To be honest, I don’t think it’s very important. Developers will go where they perceive the monetary rewards reside. In other words I believe Google and Apple are attracting developers because developers perceive that these are the horses to ride. RIM’s IDE work is very focused on enterprise IT departments and are attracting those folks to write.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:40:31 +0000

Thanks P. Doug – this is exactly what I’m talking about. My how times have changed! It looks Palm no longer Hates it’s developer community. I used to work for a company that built Palm apps. Palm seemed to hate us and treated us like a nuisance. Also they tried to “nickle and dime” us at every turn for making apps on their platform. We often remarked they treated us like “unwanted” customers. It looks like they are getting their act together but too little too late. I for one will “dance on their grave” when they finally collapse.

By: P. Douglas Reeder

P. Douglas Reeder — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:48:32 +0000

If you think tools are key, check out Ares from Palm: http://ares.palm.com/ (you’ll need a (free) account to actually log in). It’s an IDE written as a web application. It’s not usable for sizeable apps yet, but it does show what Palm thinks is worth putting effort into.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:30:20 +0000

Elia,
Thanks as always, one part that you didn’t mention that I think gives Apple and potentially Google a leg up over the competition is the little known area of tools. Many people think computer programmers “code straight to bare metal” but unless you’re writing assembly code much of the heavy lifting of writing programs for specific operating systems is done the the compilers and OS tools provided by the softwares vendor or in “Open Source” products by the “community”. Apple was forced to make really good tools in the dark days in the late 90′s when they were about to go out of business. No one was writing Mac apps since the market was shrinking and so they had to cater to the developer base.
Apple’s programming framework for the Mac is remarkable. They provide tools for free that programmers have to pay thousands of dollars to buy for Windows. Since I gave up programming for more profitable pursuits many years ago I have not used the new Apple developer kits for the iPhone but I hear they are excellent. I have heard that the Symbian tools are there but lack documentation and clear standards.
I would love to hear what your impression of each of the mobile OS’s developer enviornments is like. What support to you get? Do they update the tools often? Do they charge for them? I think you can predict success of a platform based on the support the companies provide developers. Apple has learned to love and support their developer base I am very curious about the others.

By: Elia Freedman

Elia Freedman — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:01:00 +0000

I agree with what you are saying but Apple is targeting a niche — a very big one. It’s consumers. They want Facebook and Twitter and a great browser and lots of games, just like RIM has targeted a huge niche of enterprise and government workers. What I can’t figure out is whether there are other niches that can be a target for the other vendors, or whether someone else can worm into Apple’s or RIM’s dominance of their niches to take a chunk for them, at least here in North America.

Elia