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David Barnes
9 Reasons For Indie Developers to Flip the Finger at the iPhone
I have a theory that when Steve Jobs first announced the iPhone, he knew full well that there would be a 3rd party application API. I bet he'd already designed it. But he also knew that it was a scheme that gave Apple everything and the developer nothing. How could he get developers to buy into that vicious scheme?
He made them beg for it.
Oh Mr Jobs sir, we'd give anything to be able to write applications for your magical device. Oh please Mr Jobs. Please.
Nope (testily), HTML 5 is all you'll need.
But it's OS X! On a phone! OS X is wonderful! Your phone is wonderful! And you are most wonderful of all! Please sir! Please!
He got developers to beg for an API and AppStore toolchain that was in Apple's advantage, all the while acting like he was reluctantly giving them what they'd asked for.
Well I say no more. It's time for indie developers to flip the finger at those multi-touch screens, and start building for other platforms. 9 reasons why the iPhone deserves your 1-fingered salute:
- 99 cents?!?! Seriously, the race to the bottom with iPhone pricing is an insult to developers. Some games have the lite version for free, and then the upgrade costs 99 cents! Only in the iPhone world is the premium version of anything 99 cents.
- Every other indie developer in the universe is leaping onto the AppStore. You're unlikely to stand out as an iPhone developer... and if you do anything too innovative, you'll always be in danger of having your place in the AppStore revoked. Clearly there are a few people making megabucks on the AppStore, and many people making a decent living. But looking at the whole system there isn't enough gold for the rush.
- The approval process is like joining the Masons. You know that you've got to bend over. You know that you've got to co-operate and give everything. You don't know when or if your app will be approved. And if it's developed for the iPhone, getting approval is your only hope. There's no other way to distribute. Once you're up there, you'll never know when they change their policy and decide to take you out.
- For the iPhone, apps are virtually a loss leader -- but it's the developer's loss and Apple's lead. More and more, Apple uses the availability of free and cheap apps to market the iPhone and iTouch. The promise is: buy this device for a few hundred bucks, and gain access to thousands of free or cheap games and apps. Remember how games consoles in the late 80s and early 90s were cheap, but the games were expensive? Companies made a loss on the console, but made up for it on the games. Apple has turned this on its head -- they have a high cost, high profit device marketed by loss-making games and apps. But they don't bear the loss on the apps -- you do.
- Your fate is in Jobs' hands. If you build your business on the iPhone platform, then you're putting your business entirely in Apple's hands. If they change their strategy or have a spell of bad luck, the platform crumbles into the sea and you'll find yourself treading water without a life jacket.
- Flash and/or HTML5 will come, and the app market will wither. If the iPhone had Flash support then it would sell more units, but AppStore revenue would drop as people found alternative web games and apps. There will be somebody in Apple right now working out when the extra iPhone sales they'll get for supporting Flash outweighs the loss in AppStore revenue. That time will come -- once the existing market saturates and it's lack of Flash holding the remaining non-iPhone consumers back, do you think Apple will still insist that the iPhone won't support Flash? Have you been able to trust Apple's statements about future strategy in the past?
- The iPhone will always be a premium product. Cheaper handsets will come. Already commodity "free with contract" handsets are getting bigger screens and accelerometers. They're becoming credible gaming machines themselves. At some point there will be a genuine mass market for decent games that run on low cost commodity hand sets. iPhone developers will be caught looking the other way.
- You need a Mac, you need a developer program thing, you need to buy an iPhone. Just to be in the game as an iPhone developer, you need to hand Apple a whole bunch of money. Think about how it works -- they sell an expensive product to customers (and get a stream of income from iPhone network use too). They sell expensive products to developers (and get a stream of income from the developer licenses). And all so that developer and customer can exchange applications for less than $1 a pop!
- It's elitist. When you write a game for the iPhone, even if you give it away for free, you are limiting access to the wealthiest people in the world -- those who can afford an iPhone, and live in a Western country where they're easily available. Write an app that runs on commodity hardware, and you're providing a service even to some of the world's poorest people.
Do you consider the iPhone the platform for you? Are you putting all your eggs in Jobs' basket, or trying to spread yourself around? What platforms do you think will be big in the next 3 years?
Posted
by David Barnes
