The iPhone is the hottest platform around, leading some small-time developers to overnight riches and spawning over ten thousand apps in only a few months. But without knowledge of Objective-C or the intricacies of the iPhone SDK, many talented designers have no way of getting their wares onto the App Store. Today, Viximo has released a landmark new development platform called VixML that allows talented designers to create basic applications with a minimal amount of programming knowledge. The new development platform could easily turn into one of the most important tools for novice iPhone developers, and with the the tagline “this way to iPhone awesomeness”, it’s clear that Viximo has high expectations.
VixML is based on the XML markup language, which may still be intimidating enough to scare off some prospective designers but is nowhere near as complex as an actual programming language. Using a number of pre-designated tags, the VixML WYSIWYG SDK and emulator, designers can create rich, multimedia mini-apps in a matter of days that would have previously taken weeks or months of programing. Basic tags allow developers to make their applications sensitive to a number of common iPhone user inputs, including shaking, blowing into the microphone, swiping and tapping with fingers, and tilting the phone. The platform also includes support for an integrated 3D graphics engine for nifty particle effects.
Once you’ve developed your VixML project, there’s the matter of actually getting it onto the App Store. For now, all projects will be part of Viximo’s upcoming True Flirt application, which allows users to send these mini-apps to each other as virtual greetings. To send a “Flirt”, you’ll need the premium version of the app, which is $5.99. If the recipient of a flirt doesn’t have the app installed, they’ll be sent an SMS message inviting them to download a free version that allows them to view and interact with Flirts, but doesn’t allow them to send them.
Developers will be able to submit their projects to be included as part of the main True Flirt application, or as standalone ‘Flirt Packs’ that will be sold as separate apps. Ideally users would simply be able to buy these flirts through the main application instead of having to deal with separate Flirt Packs, but the App Store doesn’t currently support micro-transactions so we’re left with this inelegant solution. Still, for the time and money saved in development costs, the hassle may well be worth it for many designers.
However, there are a few major caveats. All projects designed in VixML must go through Viximo for deployment on the App Store, which means that you’ll need to go through two gatekeepers for approval (both Viximo and the standard Apple approval process), and you won’t be able to release yours apps outside of the True Flirt brand for some time. Viximo says that there will be a revenue sharing arrangement for each app that gets deployed, but is unwilling to discuss exactly how much will be going back to the developers. It sounds like this will be determined on a per-developer basis (and you’ll be told how much you’re getting once you’ve submitted an app), but the lack of even a ballpark figure is disconcerting (why build something when you have no idea how much you’re going to get paid?).
These issues aside, VixML seems like a powerful platform that could open up the iPhone to countless new developers, provided the developer restrictions aren’t too extreme. Granted, you won’t be able to build anything as complex as Tap Tap Revenge or Shazam, but the App Store has proven that even the most basic applications can do extremely well.
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As a web designer and not programmer this looks like it would be very cool. I remember getting into Flash when it came out before I ever even touched HTML!
This is truly a breakthrough! A lot of noob programmers are scared to learn languages but xml is pretty basic and will be easy for all to learn.
Is this a good or bad thing? It puts a lot of novice coders work out there, but the more impressive stuff could be left behind.
I guess we’ll see!
http://www.jugargame.com/
“Man with hand in pocket feel cocky all day”… Now that’s a classy phrase to put in a business video.
I was thinking the same thing.
Well Said Matt…
what if we have hands on keyboard all day?
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A platform like this is much needed, thanks for the post. It is also interesting that you can pack individual flirts into their own app packages. I hope App store offers a transaction model for such apps.
So it’s a locked down development platform on top of another locked down development platform?
Hooray - way to go!
LOL Exactly!! I was thinking about making a nested app store for viximo , all substitutions would go through me, then viximo then apple… just for kicks.. I wonder if they would allow it? It would be devastatingly Ironic if they didn’t
Would you then allow me to build another on top of your app?
Doesn’t this violate the SDK terms? where you can use only the builtin interpreters?
I don’t see how this should be allowed and yet Flash is not.
From my understanding, the user developed app becomes apart of the over arching application - which is then submitted every time directly to Apple. Think of it as an update.
Bingo.
The first thought I had when I read this is: Apple could shut this down at any time, why would you build a house on quick sand?
I mean you know they want absolute control over everything that happens on the IPhone.
Excellent point Richard. Why in the world we want to use something that Apple could shut it down any time.
These scenes look slick.
This will be a lot more powerful after the imminent Android version comes out (getting on Android Market is a 15 minute task without anybody getting in the way). Even then, the business opportunity will last only until the arrival of Flash to mobile.
This is truly a breakthrough! A lot of noob programmers are scared to learn languages but xml is pretty basic and will be easy for all to learn.
Is this a good or bad thing? It puts a lot of novice coders work out there, but the more impressive stuff could be left behind.
I guess we’ll see!
The platform within a platform approach. ACK! That’s not what developers want!
I would appreciate something with the XML approach, but that produced a stand-alone binary that could be submitted to the AppStore. Of course, that would limit the company’s revenue opportunities, as instead of a “platform”, it would just be a development tool. What we have here sounds like less coolness, and more vendor lock-in.
Nice! Cold Fusion for the iphone.
The fact that it is part of this “Flirts” application renders it impractical to me. How can I tell my potential users… “well, you have to download this flirts thing first, and uh..”
How could the author of this posting not see that as a show-stopper?
This looks like compiling a static version of flash into a new iPhone app, which is 100% legit from Apple’s perspective.
for the less technically inclined: Apple doesn’t want Adobe to release a flash player for the iPhone because such a player would allow you as a user to run an endless amount of flash content on your iPhone. this flash content could be games, applications and whatnot. Since you only buy this ‘Flash Player’ once, Apple doesn’t make money on flash games and apps.
If on the other hand, Adobe lets users compile flash (programmer talk: statically) into their application and use it, that’s just fine because that’s going to be an app that’s sold and makes money for the developer and for apple.
It looks like this is exactly what these Vix guys are trying to do, and expect them to release an Android version as well.
good idea, Adobe should work with the developer community and let them link statically to flash and leverage the huge base of existing flash games out there.
Sounds cool, I’ll we’ll definitely play with it. For developing our Doorbell app for the iPhone I better leave it to our dev team though
You can use MotherApp (http://motherapp.com/) to create standalone native app using simple HTML instead of Objective-C. All the UI widgets (such as buttons or tabs) are native, and you can use the camera to upload photos or the GPS to find out the user location.
This seems to be “poor” Flash platform alternative.
This kind of thing is exactly why Apple was afraid and reluctant to allow Adobe’s flash onto the iPhone.
Hopefully, they will realize now that they can’t stop it, and finally allow the real deal through (Adobe’s Flash, that is).
Then things will really start shacking up…
VixML is for building native content and apps, unlike Flash. So you get a better user experience and better performance (OpenGL rendering, etc.).
Developers looking to simplify their cycles without depending on proprietary solutions should check out http://phonegap.com which allows native apps to be build for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry with just html and javascript.
Some of the art work done on the video is from a James Krauss a very talented graphic designer. You can view more of his stuff over at http://www.artguy.com. You can have the platform but it all comes down to having the professionals to execute.