I’ve developed several paid apps for the iphone. I’ve also programed in .NET for the past 10 years.

What makes the SDK huge is not the programming language (Objective-C) it is the SDK itself. The ability to do complex animations, play audio, respond to touches, react to phone movement. All with a FEW LINES OF CODE!!!

Please…How powerfull a language is means mothing unless you can get great stuff done quickly!

I love .NET, like Java, and really don’t like much Objective-C, but who cares?

7. a marketplace presentation that understands users’ requirements/expectations and presents them with _relevant_ applications.

There are simply so many apps available through the appstore - or through Handango, or other store-of-choice- that it is becoming very hard for users to find the ‘right’ or the ‘best’ app of any given type, or to become aware of unique/unusual applications that are particularly relevant. I think it will become more and more valuable for the store/distribution system to incorporate user understanding into prioritizing the presentation of the applications. None of the currently popular platforms or stores have this capability, although there are some startups and small players that do. It requires a fundamentally different approach to designing and positioning the store.

Surely more “Enterprise” applications will come to the iPhone.

still, i think “guys continually leave Nokia out of the equation” because they do not claim a significant share in the US smartphone market, however dominant they are globally. RIM first, apple coming second, according to the latest research.

Handango has been around for ages, as has apps for Windows Mobile, but so what? They obviously didn’t know the best way to optimize their application markets.

Finally, you are flat out wrong in saying that the competing app stores for J2ME/Symbian phones has helped keep prices low. The average price points for apps on Handango is around $20. For the App Store it is below $10, with at least 20% of the apps available being offered for free.

One WM and Palm devices, who have had mobile software since the turn of the century, there has been no uniform way to do any of these tasks. Except for power-users, users did not know that you could add software (no store on device), could not download OTA (a recent possibility and user knowledge on how-to is spotty), installation was a nightmare (from internet to desktop to device), the purchase experience was varied (Palm/Pocket Gear, Handango, Mobihand, Dev sites, etc), and also delivery of the “unlock” registration code for shareware was also varied by site (via email (spam issues), automatic, or otherwise).

The AppStore solves all those distribution issues for the developer, which with the other advantages noted in this article, makes it very attractive for everyone.

A few side comments, with RIM and Symbian, you only can browse certain titles (it’s not easy to get approved or get onto “the stores”), and with the other Electronic Software Distributors (ESD’s), like Handango, they can take upwards of 40-75% of the sale prices.

I recently covered some of this in more detail on our blog “Mobile Evolution”…

Non technical people seem to often make the mistake that great UI = powerful SDK. Just because a window can slide across the screen, or an alert box has nice gradients doesn’t mean it’s powerful.

I’m not saying Apple’s SDK is weak by any means, but there are some limitations they place on it, that imo, make the RIM SDK more powerful.

iPhone is cool, but saying Mobile Windows doesn’t have a “powerful sdk” seems very stupid! and Dan forgot that Visual Studio is much more powerful than Xcode.

Give only one more oportunity for Dan

They don’t have an app store but are working on it internally. Why does RIM insist on doing work themselves is beyong me. For example they are writing their own bug tracking software when there are dozens of free and commercial ones. Their own home grown “app store” will likely be a dud.

RIM should figure out what it is doing and just stick to that, and that is making phones. And they should fire whomever is in charge of OS upgrades for them — have you ever upgraded the OS on a BB? Can you? Contact your carrier? Your what? Apple is making all these problems go away.

A piece of junk? Their IDE is a complete joke and their Eclipse “plugin” isn’t a plugin at all but a port of their junky IDE into Eclipse. It is probably the worst IDE out on the market

Can all iPhone apps be downloaded OTA?

How do you quantify easy? I downloaded MLB Game Day on my Blackberry a few weeks ago and it took 3 clicks and entering my user/pass. That included paying for the application service fee and linking it to my MLB.com account.

I also just downloaded Google Talk on my BB in two clicks, and it took all of 30 seconds. That’s pretty easy.

Finally, I’m no Microsoft fanboy, but Windows Mobile isn’t popular? By one measure, Windows Mobile is 3 times as popular as RIM and Apple combined! (http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=538) Now, true, Windows Mobile doesn’t have one killer device (neither does RIM/Blackberry — or Apple anymore for that matter) but at best, Windows Mobile should be NA, because they don’t create any hardware that I know of, only software.