iPhone 2.0: Enterprise Ready. Developer Ready.
Mark Hendrickson
62 comments »
Apple made a number of major announcements today around the iPhone. We live blogged the event if you want to see all of the details. But if you want a summary of the important parts, read on.
Two things happened worth noting. First, the iPhone is no longer just a really fun phone/Internet device. It now supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, meaning it can hold its own against any other business device out there (more on that below). Second, Apple gave more details on its previously announced software development kit that will allow third parties to get their software onto the iPhone. From the demo’s shown today, developers by the thousands will be clamoring to jump on board.
The iPhone still has a tiny 0.14% market share in the mobile world. But even so, Apple CEO Steve Jobs claims that 71% of web browsing on smart phones occurs on iPhones. As someone who’s used many mobile devices over the last couple of years, that’s a believable statistic. Surfing the web on an iPhone, with the high resolution screen and touch interface is a superior experience.
iPhone: Enterprise Ready
Last summer we compared the iPhone to the BlackBerry 8820 on business features, and it lost hands down. The iPhone still has big limitations that make it less useful for business users, particularly battery life. And many users cannot adapt to the iPhone touch screen, preferring physical buttons. But announcements made today make the iPhone’s core office functionality as good as any other device out there. And the iPhone still has, by far, the superior browsing experience and user interface.
Version 2.0 of the iPhone software now supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. That means much better syncing with the desktop, and not just when the iPhone is physically connected to your computer. If you use Microsoft Exchange, you can now easily set up the iPhone to work with it so you enjoy push email, calendar and contacts.
Business users will also have VPN connectivity, certificates and identities, enterprise WiFi, enforced security policies, device configuration, and remote data wipes.
While users can only configure one Exchange account at a time, setup takes only about 20 seconds (assuming your company already has an Exchange server running). The iPhone applications relevant to Exchange - such as Mail, Contacts, and Calendar - will all retain the same look and feel.
Apple has been working with Nike and Disney to test the new Exchange Server support.
Hi Developers, Come On In
Before today the iPhone was a closed platform that only gave third party applications access via the browser (or though hacks). The company says that over 1,000 iPhone specific websites have been created.
Now Apple is opening up all of its internal APIs and tools for 3rd party software developers. These include a version of the Cocoa programming environment called Cocoa Touch that focuses on the idea of touch as an input. It allows for multi-touch events and controls, use of the built-in accelerometer and camera, and other things like hierarchy views, localization, alerts, web views, people pickers, and image pickers.
There is also now a version of Xcode that can be used to build applications for the iPhone. It can code completely to the APIs in the iPhone SDK, and it can handle both project management and source control management. It has a debugger that can be used remotely on a Mac (plug your iPhone into your desktop and debug from there).
There are also three other new tools: Interface Builder, Instruments, and iPhone Simulator. Interface Builder lets you drag-n-drop an interface together for your new iPhone app. Instruments is a suite of performance analytics tools. And iPhone Simulator simulates the entire API stack of the iPhone letting you test an iPhone app from your Mac.
The SDK kit is available immediately. Go here to learn more. You have to join the Apple developer program ($99) to start making iPhone apps. Or iPod touch apps, for that matter, since the SDK applies to that device as well.
Application Demonstrations
Both Apple and its launching partners demonstrated new applications for the iPhone. Apple demonstrated a program called Touch Effects that let you easily distort photos you have taken and even erase them by just shaking your phone (think Photobooth for your handheld). A game called Touch Fighter was demonstrated to show how the accelerometer could be used as controls.
Among the launch partners, Electronic Arts debuted the highly-anticipated game Spore on the iPhone. Salesforce showed how iPhone users will be able to track sales leads, AOL showed off an instant messaging client, Epocrates demoed a drug lookup application, and SEGA played a Super Monkey Ball game.
Application Distribution
Apple confirmed the rumor that iTunes would be the only way for users to buy and download iPhone applications. Customers will be able to browse and search for applications, some of which will be provided for free. Developers will get 70% of the sales revenue paid monthly and with no credit card fees. Restrictions, however, have been placed on the type of applications that can be sold: no pornography, nothing illegal, no bandwidth hogs, and nothing that could cause “unforeseen” problems. VoIP will also not be allowed over cellular connections, just WiFi.
Even though application development starts today, users will not be able to download them until June. And companies who want to distribute applications internally will have to wait for Apple to come up with a solution for that.
iFund
Jobs’s “one more thing” today was the announcement of a so-called iFund by Kleiner Perkins that will dedicate $100M to companies who want to develop new applications for the iPhone or iPod touch. John Doerr called Jobs the “world’s greatest entrepreneur” and “supreme commander of the rebels” from onstage. See our post about the fund for more details.
“And many users cannot adapt to the iPhone touch screen, preferring physical buttons. But announcements made today make the iPhone’s core office functionality as good as any other device out there.”
Except the whole, no “physical buttons” part.
No physical buttons = no dice for me.
Can someone please confirm that apple is taking 30% royalties from commercial applications developed for the iPhone?
I just cant believe such a business model will work for them. Every SDK or runtime for the past decade has been free (flash/java/.net/silverlight) why do they think it will work for them?
@1: You are certainly entitled to your opinion. As for me, the touchscreen (especially the zooming part) have finally made mobile Internet use a pleasure. I would never dream of using a Crackberry, Treo or WM phone for that. Yuk!
“supreme commander of the rebels” is a brash overstatement. Jobs has not been a rebel since the 80’s. He is basically just another rehash of Bill Gates trying to build a monopoly. Would a rebel really make a partnership with AT&T? Would a rebel wait like a year to release an SDK? Don’t get me wrong, I love my iphone… I just think Jobs is as corporate or even more so than any other company. He does not stand for open software, and that is why I will be going with android in the future.
Josh: they are running the store and handling payments etc. 30% is a good deal!
Josh:
To add to what Jugo said, don’t forget you get to automatically be included in the primary distribution platform. A lot of people developed applications for Treo et. al, but it doesn’t mean you could find those apps directly from Sprint.com or whatever your carrier was (or you could pay the carrier with a percentage of your sales - which same thing, only smaller audience).
What’s nice about this is all the iPhone apps will be in one place, making it much easier and more likely for your target customer to find your application, purchase it, and use. Also the update feature is pretty swank, and it means bugs can get reported and fixed and redistributed very easily.
what about companies who use Lotus Notes, many large firms do.
not impressed by this. also not impressed by Steve Ballmer’s keynote Q&A.
Why is the “First 3rd Party app for the iPhone” - the EA game - only available in September?? by then everyone will be talking about a gPhone.
and here i thought today would be chock-filled with exciting announcements…
So when will v2.0 be available? Do we know yet? I must have missed that part.
From their press release:
Apple® today previewed its iPhone™ 2.0 software, scheduled for release this June, and announced the immediate availability of a beta release of the software to selected developers and enterprise customers.
“While users can only configure one Exchange account at a time, setup takes only about 20 seconds (assuming your company already has an Exchange server running).”
what is the quoted setup time w/o an exchange server?
email push, wireless calendar and contact synch are great. add GPS to the iPhone and the Blackberry is dead.
it’s kind of surprising that Google didn’t move on this first with Gmail. there are a lot of companies that would dump Exchange as well if they could.
it looks a little odd for Microsoft and Apple to be further along than Apple and Google given the obvious natural alignment amongst the players…
awesome, they just need to come out with the 32GB model and sales will be booming… again
Perhaps I’m mistaken but I don’t think you need to pay the $99 to begin developing apps. The SDK is free and you can create a developer login for free, you just won’t have access to all the developer resources without subscribing.
Am I wrong?
“The SDK kit is available immediately. Go here to learn more. You have to join the Apple developer program ($99) to start making iPhone apps.”
It’s rediculous to charge developers for using iPhone API. Microsoft does not charge developers for using .NET Framework. Sun does not charge developers for using Java. Facebook does not charge developers for using Facebook API.
If you do not build a large network of developers who are developing countless applications for your platform, how can you promote your platform?
The 30% cut they take from app sales is the same as other sites that sell mobile apps, namely handango.com
As for the sync stuff, we’ve had an OTA sync app that works Oracle Collaboration Suite, and other SyncML capable servers since December (nexthaus.com/iphone). Exchange support is good, glad they are adopting an existing way of doing it, instead of creating yet another server addon/standard.
Lou
Nexthaus
joey: I haven’t gone through the SDK d/l, but my impression is that writing is free (probably with an emulator or something), but loading onto the phone/touch is $99
Cangelor: And in fact isn’t charging for APIs one of the things the EU is smacking Microsoft for?
I too am interested in knowing why Apple insist on 30% of sales for commercial applications. I like Apple a lot, my initial response was that this is unfortunate, but then I got thinking..does anyone know what Apple plans to do with the 30%? Will it be reinvested in a manner that will continue to open up the sales doorway for independent developers?
@EH, thanks for clearing that up. I believe you are correct.
@julian
I had to stop the impulse to say “Don’t be a communist”
They’re not an open source company. That 30% no doubt will be line-itemed. A certain portion going to development, research, expenses, and of course the most important thing: profits.
How do you build the ecosystem that is Microsoft or Apple without profits? Answer, you don’t. That’s why we’re stuck with the Linux desktop as it is right now.
Just to clarify, the iPhone has 28% of the smart phone market share in North America. That’s more than all Windows Mobile devices combined. And the iPhone has only been on sale for 8 months.
The 0.14% market share is web browser market share, which includes all desktop web browsers. Again, this is a bigger browser market share than all Windows Mobile devices combined.
http://www.phonemag.com/smartp.....-02860.php
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007.....ws-mobile/
Spore is the first app because EA was the first brought onboard and it was the first game they started working on. It will come in September because that’s when Spore is due for every other platform. In between the release of iPhone 2.0 software and Spore’s release, many casual games will leapfrog “the first iPhone game,” don’t worry.
I also wouldn’t worry about Lotus. It’s virtually 99.9% certain it’s in the works. Apple was just demonstrating the absolutely essential (Exchange, AIM) and parading a sampling of what’s to come (games, enterprise). Lotus is probably least far along of the enterprise apps. Likewise, I would expect Adium and other chat programs to hope aboard as well. There’ll be no dearth of applications hoping to get in.
If Microsoft announced today that it was releasing app development on its mobile OS that is a very significant part of smartphone marketshare and that the only way for us to sell apps on its phone was to pay 30% to use MS own app distribution’s site would the entire world shit bricks? Yes it would. This is exactly why flash isn’t offered on the phone. Flash would skip the entire distribution model for apple, and apple got confused an thought it was 1990. It can own the OS, the distribution, etc.
If this were google, or MS the world would be all over them. Apple is sexy, but it isn’t without its evil/greedy sides and itunes / iphone shows it.
Here is the thing I am dying to know…. are they going to cut the price of the 16gb Iphone anytime soon.. I was hoping they would announce it today.
Ill cross my fingers for mid April..
Re: Apple taking 30%
A couple of years ago, company’s like Handango were taking cuts of around 40%. There was a little uproar about it, and people were trying to form a union. I don’t know what rates are like currently.
http://web.archive.org/web/200.....union.com/
Re: “While users can only configure one Exchange account at a time”
I believe all other Exchange-connecting-capable devices like various Windows Mobile devices, BlackBerries and even Outlook can only connect to one Exchange account at a time.
You can develop apps using the emulator for free. If u want to deploy them to an iphone u need the paid version.
I am one of the iphone developers, thanks for all kudos to devs
I love Iphone! Hey, I love the body fitted sports.Welcome to view my crazy hot photos at mixedfriends . com by searching ’sunnysmile’， I am looking for a hot man..
When is the free ride for Apple going to be over? Another paid upgrade for iPod touch users. Somehow we get to pay a “nominal” fee to upgrade our iPods so we can buy applications from Apple. The most insane thing ever. And then to distribute these applications commercially we get to have Apple take a slice. Yes, it’s great to be able to have your application show up in iTunes, but it would also be great just to distribute the applications I create the way I want to. But that’s not Apple.
Here’s an idea for Apple: instead of having accounting practices that screw your customers, change your accounting practices. Or realize that touch users are also an “ongoing revenue stream”. We *gasp* buy songs from iTunes. Or at least I used to before I realized that I can get them cheaper from Amazon’s store (and Amazon has a nice tool to download them all and add them to iTunes).
Great. I wonder if they will let (or coerced into letting) Microsoft provide Silverlight to iPhone for free or for a reduced price for Exchange server integration.
Whoops, did I say that out loud?
@Joshua
First - Apple stated VERY CLEARLY that freeware applications would not cost developers money when customers downloaded the apps. So, if you give away your app - you pay 30% of nothing. It would not cost Adobe or Microsoft 30% of anything to develop either Flash or Silverlight for the iPhone.
Second, development of Flash for the iPhone would not affect or skip this distribution model in the slightest. Flash on the iPhone would not be in any way capable of doing what you can do with this SDK.
Flash could enhance some applications, sure, but there is no way you’re going to get something that looks like Sega’s Super Monkey Ball on an iPhone with Flash.
Flash web apps on the iPhone would be great, but they wouldn’t negate native applications.
So…3G is coming when?
@32 - Adobe and Microsoft cannot release Flash and Silverlight without Apple’s permission. For that matter Firefox and Opera won’t be on iPhone either without removing the plug-in architecture. Apple got the screws down tight. But don’t worry, many of us are quite used to, and even starting to enjoy this treatment. After all this is the mobile industry and the future of desktop and web too.
I suggest that you check the iPhone SDK EULA clause 3.2.2.
3.3.2 An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s).
Further to previous comment, if Firefox wants to play, Javascript support needs to come off too.
Needless to say, Python, Perl, Java etc are all ruled out too.
This iPhone SDK release should spur Apple to partner with other network providers. AT&T/Cingular is just the worse service provider.
This release will really be a blow to RIM and BlackBerry