“Perhaps it’s playing well in the mainstream press, but here at WWDC, Apple’s ‘you can write great apps for the iPhone: they’re called ‘web sites’’ – message went over like a lead balloon,” John Gruber writes for Daring Fireball.
Gruber writes, “It’s insulting, because it’s not a way to write iPhone apps, and you can’t bullshit developers. It’s a matter of spin. What Apple should have announced is something like this: “We know that you want to write your own apps for iPhone, and we’d like to see that too. We love the apps you write for the Mac, and we’d love to see what you might be able to come up with for iPhone. We’re thinking about it, and working on ways that we might make that happen, but we don’t have anything to announce today. The good news, though, is that because iPhone has a real Safari web browser, you can write web-based apps that work great on iPhone.”
Gruber writes, “That wasn’t what the developers here at WWDC wanted to hear, but at least it wouldn’t have been insulting.”
Another reason why Apple developed and released Safari for Windows, according to Gruber, “is simply money. Safari is a free download, but it’s already one of Apple’s most profitable software products.”
It’s not widely publicized, but those integrated search bars in web browser toolbars are revenue generators. When you do a Google search from Safari’s toolbar, Google pays Apple a portion of the ad revenue from the resulting page,” Gruber explains. “My somewhat-informed understanding is that Apple is currently generating about $2 million per month from Safari’s Google integration. That’s $25 million per year. If Safari for Windows is even moderately successful, it’s easy to see how that might grow to $100 million per year or more.”
Full article, with more about Leopard, Jobs’ scant list of “top secrets,” that the new Dock that only works visually at the bottom of the screen, and more, here.
“I could swear I saw an app demonstrated on stage that worked through the browser. WTF!”
Actually, I chuckled at that. Did anybody notice the URL that they went to?
Keep in mind what happened–they built a fake phone book app on the web, optimized for iPhone. And how do you get to it? With a bookmark in your web browser.
Again, I want to use my Bluetooth GPS with my iPhone for a custom application. Tell me how to do that with a web app.
“So because The Steve doesn’t want to have the iPhone turned into an unstable POS, with JoeBlowHack “developer” having access to the iPhone’s innards, ‘developers’ are miffed? Fuck ’em. (that expletive was for Mr. Daring).”
Well, this brings up an entertaining question…
iPhone runs OS X. OS X is the core of Mac OS X, one of the most stable operating systems on the planet, as all of us Mac users know.
So how is my little app going to the iPhone into an “unstable POS”?
Or is there something else going on that we’re not aware of. Again, the excuses don’t match.
Advertising, I hate it, it wastes my time and most of it is unbelievable. Coke – poison your body slowly, Microsoft, waste your time rapidly, the one rule of advertising we all should learn is that the more it is advertised the worse that the product is.
So Safari is supported by advertising, well that’s OK provided I can turn it off otherwise I’ll stick with FireFox and adblock and flashblock. I can do the math, maybe it loads slower but if I waste less time with adverts I am winning.
Maybe it’s a bit sad to see that Apple is profiting from Google advertising – but I knew that already and that is the ‘real’ world that has been created for us. Apple would be foolish not to take advantage, I guess. But Apple discovered the better way of marketing some while ago, if your products are good put them on display where people can seen and use and test them. That’s why the stores are so successful, way better than advertising already and there are loads of places without Apple stores.
Worst of all advertising is a tax on everyone, time and money. Makes our visual and audio environment worse and produces loads of landfill.
Every advert should carry two additional prices on it, (1) the cost of the advert, production and space (2) the advertising cost allocated to the purchase of the product. People would soon stop. The minimum ‘recommended’ advertising spend is 10% of the retail price of the product, some products over 50% of what you pay goes on advertising.
Third rant of the day over!
For those Canadians wondering when/if the iPhone will come to Canada and even whether Rogers has publicly commented on the iPhones’ availability here was my response from their Manager of Corporate Communications:
Dear Dan,
I would love to be able to give you some sort of indication but unfortunately, I can’t. Despite all the speculation in the media, Rogers hasn’t made any public announcements regarding the iPhone.
Best regards,
Odette Coleman
Manager, Corporate Communications
Rogers Wireless
and who have not seen the other 90+ developments and enhancements to 10.5.
Actually, there are some of us who have. I am very happy that Apple has created the NSOperation API. I’m very happy about the plug-in architecture for QuickLook. And I fucking love Back to My Mac and built in Remote Desktop.
But I don’t love iPhone development thru the web browser. Anyone who says that web apps offer as much as local apps don’t know what they’re talking about.
3rd party web apps only…yeah Kool AId, drinkers it is a real Mac alright….ROFLMAO
Just my $0.02
“Somehow, I told ya so, doesn’t even begin to cover it” Wil Smith, I Robot
From now on, those of you who have no idea about technology, please stop posting. Don’t believe all the crap that Steve throws out. This is a cop-out. You could already write apps for Safari. Sure, they’re adding a couple of links to services in the iPhone. But the problem is that only Apple is writing these services. There will be no innovation.
Web 2.0 + Ajax does not equal desktop apps. Think you can replace Photoshop with a web app? Think you can replace Final Cut Studio? How about Aperture?
I’m going to give Apple the benefit of the doubt here. I believe they would love to release an SDK but they can’t. They probably signed a contract with AT&T preventing this. Why? Because the first app written for the iPhone would be an instant messenger. The second app would be a Skype client. AT&T doesn’t want this. It cuts into their profits.
I think I’ll sit this one out and look forward to a true mobile device that has a SDK where apps will be written that would provide things like SSH, VPN, VNC, instant messenging, Skype, and even games.
The silence at WWDC when Steve dropped this bomb was deafening. That said, it can still change because we all know it runs OS X. I think it is very important to Apple that the iPhone be stable in its first couple of years while they sort out the bugs. Reputation is everything. After that they can open up the platform because everyone will know that it will be their own fault if they use 3rd party apps and the phone crashes.
Hey Gandalf,
Apple isn’t profiting from Google advertising. They profit from when you use the search bar. The Mozilla Foundation earned over $50 million in 2005 because of people using the built-in search bar in Firefox.
I can’t blame Jobs for the BS, though. If Jobs had said a true SDK was coming, then he would have promised something that he might not be ready to talk about. When you promise nothing, nobody can punish you for not delivering. That said, I think Apple knows that 3rd party apps are crucial if iPhone to succeed in the enterprise market. So, AJAX gives the way for people to develope web apps for iPhone now. Besides, promising an SDK now may give developers a reason to wait until the SDK before creating apps is out but Apple needs the developers now.
Everybody complaining about the lack of a software development kit for the iPhone needs to read Download Squad’s take on it.
Download Squad explains this MUCH better than I can so click the link.
JOHN GRUBER IS 100% ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!!!
APPLE, YOU GUYS ARE A BUNCH OF MORONS TO NOT OPEN UP THE IPHONE TO 3RD PARTY DEVELOPERS!!
I WILL ***NEVER*** BUY AN IPHONE UNTIL I CAN PUT POCKET QUICKEN AND FILEMAKER PRO ON IT, SO YOU WILL ***NEVER*** GET A SALE FROM ME.
APPLE, YOU SUCK!
Everyone needs to just calm down about this.
Did Apple go back on any promises? No. They have never told anyone they could put their own compiled apps on the iPhone.
Will the iPhone be at a real disadvantage to other (smart)phones because it can’t run third-party compiled apps? I doubt it. I work in IT and support Blackberries, and 95% or more of our users just use them with the default apps. They want a nice email device that works out of the box, no fuss.
Did Apple insult developers by implying that web apps can replace native apps? Maybe they felt that way. But no one that I know has actually tried Apple’s web app solution yet, and Steve did say “You’ll be surprised what you can do…”
Did Apple make a mistake by making a big deal that the iPhone runs OS X? Yes, I think they did. This created a false set of expectations. In Apple’s thinking, this meant “we can build in some really advanced features not found in other phones.” But in the minds of developers (and the public to a lesser extent), this meant “it’s a miniature Mac, and I want all my Mac apps running on it yesterday.”
For anyone who hasn’t figured this out: THE iPHONE IS NOT A MINIATURE MAC. It’s not a small tablet Mac. It’s not a general-purpose computer at all. It’s an APPLIANCE. Like the AppleTV. Like the iPod. Made to do one set of things, and to do them well.
I have a Palm Pilot something…
When I got it, I loved it! I used it every day. I got a card for it, that had, among other things, chess. I used the game card only for chess, and it crashed my Palm Pilot so hard that I had to reset it… multiple times!
I got to the point where I realized that I could not depend on it, and I stuffed it onto a shelf somewhere.
That was a $599 device.
I do not want that experience on my iPhone.
Gandalf,
I think you are seriously confused about how Apple makes money from Google with Safari. There aren’t any ads in the browser – they make money because they put a Google search bar at the top of the browser that allows you to search for something without having to go to Google’s site first. They get a small percentage of ad revenue every time someone uses that bar for a search.
FYI, Firefox works the same way.
Now would be a good time to quote Roseanne Rosanna Danna, “Oh. Nevermind.”
Who would need to run photoshop, Final Cut Pro, or Maya on an iPhone?
Who here wants Microsoft to develop their slow and buggy software for the iPhone?
Who here wants spyware and worldwide hackers to ruin the iPhone? For a while I ran SafariBlock on my mac, and it was sending various information to those people without my knowledge.
The issue here is that once the door is open, the party cannot be shut down. Better to take it slow and establish the rules of the garden first. Those who can innovate and take advantage of the situation will do so. If I had a business I’d locate a good web app developer.
After years of Treo use, I had to limit my installations of third party software down to a few items, and many of them are now in the iPhone or the online google apps.
I’m not a developer, but something seemed off about trying to encourage building app’s only in Safari.
It seems like Apple has the chance to make the iPhone the next Mac, and basically win the platform wars, but they’re making mistakes right out of the gate. Macs are pretty secure, and it would seem the phone could make calls and still run app’s without going ape$/*T!
I like Daring Fireball quite a bit, but I do not agree with Mr. Gruber’s comments on yesterday’s keynote:
http://thesmallwave.blogspot.com/2007/06/disagreement-with-daring-fireballs-take.h
I like Daring Fireball quite a bit, but I do not agree with Mr. Gruber’s comments on yesterday’s keynote:
http://tinyurl.com/yukfvh
Can I ask a practical question?
Is anyone clear from Job’s announcement whether web2.0 apps will be able to be LOADED onto the phone, or if he’s talking about running them OVER THE INTERNET from a website?
I can understand why people want so much in such a little box. The fact that is has a browser that works is insane.
Watch the keynote… Really pay attention to the iPhone bit. Those are services running on the iPhone accessed via safari.
I think the non-sdk solution might actually be a GOOD thing.
http://crankyslacker.blogspot.com/
My guess is that this is just an interim solution. The iPhone is coming out in just over 2 weeks. This solution allows developers to start creating apps that’ll be ready in time or soon after the iPhone is released. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple is working on a true SDK for the iPhone, but that won’t come until Leopard is out the door.
Of course I realize how Apple, Firefox profit fromGoogle. IT IS ADVERTISING. Google make their money from advertising, biggest on the web, a link to Google is a link to ADVERTISING, it is virtually their only source of income. Have you tried searching for an item on Google recently, top links are mostly sales sites. I remember when Google first started and I switched from ixquick, gone are the days when top links were academia etc. I often use -ebay in my Google searches because too many unrelated eBay auctions appear.
Sorry if that wasn’t obvious to some of you guys.
One point I don’t think has been mentioned here about iPhone software is FCC regulation/approval.
Mobile phones are different to computers so far as they are regulated as to what they can do. Maybe apps that run on mobile phones have to be approved, I don’t know but maybe. If so web 2.0 standard apps may be part of Apple’s negotiation with FCC.
I think Gruber got it spot on.
As a user, I’m really excited about Leopard and will happily upgrade. Not at ALL disappointed in Leopard, and it’s fine if not that much was new. What we need is for it to work reliably. THAT is what would make it “not vista”.
But the look of the iphone in the demos and ads had me real excited about it as a platform. Because it “has OSX inside”. Now, as a developer I know that OSX inside is meaningless. It’s an ipod plus safari. Instead of the coolest and most powerful damned platform ever to fit in a pocket.
As to those who say letting developers write apps would make it look like crap… (1) nobody makes you install such apps and (2) How the hell do you think the Mac came to be? Apple wrote guidelines, had a toolbox to support it, and users voted with their feet against anything that wasn’t “mac-like”.
But what Gruber especially got right is that it was insulting. OF COURSE we can write Web apps for the iphone… it’s been advertising all week that it’s the “real internet”. We KNEW that. We’re not the press, we know how things work
And guess what all you fanboys and girls… That web app for iphone will work in a browser on any device.
What some of us were excited about is another 1984–contributing to the coolnest of a brand new insanely great platform. SJ told us to go away, and he did it with bullshit. Gruber was right, he should have just admitted they weren’t opening up the platform.
Now, web 2.0 fans… WHY should anyone develop for Leopard? Why should developers pay 1000s to go to WWDC to learn about Core Animiation? After all web apps have a much larger audience.
Leopard looks great. But my phone and ipod are fine– there’s not going to be an ipod revolution.
And, ironically, I am intrigued by programming small ubiquitous mobile devices. I hope SJ hasn’t inadvertently recruited me for Windows Mobile… but one can only play where they let me in the door.
As Andy C mentioned Dashboard. Thats what I see as the solution to 3rd party apps on iPhone. Simply the widget option. Only reason why SJ hasn’t mentioned it yet IMHO is that they havent’ decided how they want to handle the widget object.
So…. he says make web 2.0 apps. well thats what a widget is for the most part with some system glue if necessary. Besides if we had widgets for the iPhone right now then then there would be no ‘big announcement’ for widget support later… ya know?