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So Steve Jobs has finally announced the availability of the iPhone SDK. It will be available sometime in February of 2008. First, before I go on, I want to counter a lot of the press and blog comments stating that the release of the SDK is a reversal or some kind of about face. If anybody had done their homework, they would know that Steve Jobs himself stated that he wanted to create an environment that supported native 3rd party app development, but that they didn't have it "right" just yet, and that he wanted people to be patient. Obviously, he didn't remember that patience is one quality few techies (including myself) possess.
So where are we now? Does the announcement of the native, Cocoa-based SDK mean that web development for the iPhone and iPod touch are dead? Absolutely not. There are still a truckload of advantages to doing iPhone web development. To me, there is a clear dividing line between the types of apps you want as web apps, and the types of apps you need to be native.
There are a lot of compelling reasons to build web applications for the iPhone. If you're already thinking of an application then you might have an idea of whether it should be web-based or SDK-based. Web applications have a lot going for them, including:
Basically you can use all of the typical arguments for web-based deployment to argue in favor of web-based application development for mobile OS X devices like the iPhone and iPod touch. This also implies that many of the downsides of web development are included in the list of downsides to web development for the iPhone.
So why would you build native applications for the iPhone? It will probably take you longer to build, and take longer to test, and involve a vastly more complex deployment model - so why do it? Because depending on what kind of application you plan on building, the payoffs could be huge. Here are some of the things I see as real compelling benefits to native development that offset the extra time and effort spent developing, testing, and deploying:
This is where it gets really good. Wil Shipley put up a post about what kinds of games that he thinks might make a pretty big impact on the phone. I totally agree, and I think some of the first mind-blowing apps for the iPhone will be games. Games is one of the things that is lacking on the iPhone that every other smartphone known to man has, although there are some pretty decent games you can play online (Duck Hunt is pretty good if your fingers are accurate...).
There's also a really big opportunity for productivity enhancement applications that I can't even fathom. I'm really excited to see what comes out of the development community in this area. I'm always amazed by the apps I see floating around for smart phones.
So I expect to see a lot of games, and a lot of productivity tools, but because it's an iPhone, I think a lot of people are going to capitalize on that and make social apps or lifestyle apps.
To keep things short and sweet : web development for the iPhone is not dead. In fact, I think it's just the opposite. For the most part, I think moving desktop applications onto the web is gaining momentum, traction, and popularity. Especially with people who are on the go or who want access to functionality from multiple different devices in multiple locations. Once people quit whining about the fact that they didn't get a native development SDK on day one, I think a lot of people came to the realization that for the majority of app dev tasks that make sense on the iPhone, providing a web-based application was the best way to go. This doesn't mean there isn't a need for building native apps, because there is. For example, the day I see Delicious Library allow me to scan the barcodes of books from my iPhone in Barnes and Noble and put them on my wishlist that can be converted to my collection as I buy them - that's when I think my brain will liquefy with glee.
So, it seems as though every time I say "to keep it short", I run on for another couple paragraphs. Developing web applications for the iPhone provides you with an insanely easy deployment scenario, gives you complete control over the reliability and stability of the environment, gives you complete control over patching and updating your application, and has a lot more going for it. For what I think is the minority of app dev needs, that remaining gap will be filled by the upcoming SDK. If you don't need the strong level of OS integration that you get with the SDK, then developing an iPhone web app is still the way to go.
the SDK will likely put a knife in the back WinCE and its derivatives.
Phones are probably its best chance at profitablity. If iPhone dominates
the smart phone market, that will chance will be history.
I also see it as yet another way to get more people interested in
Objective-C 2.0 and programming for Mac OS X. See if you follow my plan to
take over the world:
Another large reason for web apps is portability - i.e. as other
phones/tablets take on 'full' browsers (Nokia's tablet has Opera. There is
also the webkit derived broswer) Web apps become an attractive way of
x-platform delivery (better than J2ME given the poor compatibility).
The problem is that users have been so utterly abused by crappy mobile
browsers in the past, people have a bad taste in their mouth when they
think of mobile web app development. But when you figure in that your
potential user base can access your app from their phone on the go (EDGE),
from their phone at hotspots or at home (WiFi), or from their iPod touch at
hotspots or at home, and the mobile browser experience with the touchable,
pinchable, zoomable Safari is actually pleasant ... you get a much more
appealing market. iPhone / iPod Touch web application is only going to get
better as more and more stuff is added through future patches and people
get better and better at creating the apps. If the problem your app is
solving is a legitimate problem, and your idea is a good one, web delivery
of your app can be a huge benefit.
