Latest News

Monday 12 April 2010

Apple vs Geeks - is this the end of a love affair?

This isn't news anymore but I wanted to wait for more light on the subject before I made any comments. Apple vs Adobe is actually an understatement. Actually, this is no surprise as Apple has always been a control freak. I mean, just take a look around you. How many PCs do you see running Apple MacOS which has not been branded by Apple Inc? Anybody trying to build a PC which runs their OS gets sued. Seriously, Microsoft may be evil but they have created an economy which in Steve Jobs world would have never existed. History is about to repeat itself; Apple Inc introduces a great idea/ products but would eventually become a niche player (well, only time will tell!!!).

I don't actually believe that real geeks use MacOS; Linux or if you work for a company this would MS Windows. Let's face it, Apple PCs (or Book, G5 or whatever) look very good on the receptionist desk and that's about it. Steve doesn't want you to innovate, he wants you to follow him to whatever **** he introduces (ipad anybody?).

Let me get back to the subject. Being software developer and I have invested time and money to build knowledge and skills. I cannot possibly learn every single programming language and therefore would welcome any tools that help me to cross-compile my code. I am not even a flash developer and seriously I don't care less about what they do. But the new Apple mobile SDK TOS affects more than just Adobe, take a look at the Open Source PhoneGap where you develop native mobile applications by programming using (the most popular language???) HTML + JavaScript. Thanks to the control freaks at Apple Inc, now this would not be possible. This is the same as saying that when you go on holiday to another country, you cannot use a translator to communicate and that you better go learn whatever language they speak in that country or STAY OUT!!!

First they didn't want Flash and Java to run on the iPhone. To be fair to them, those virtual apps kills the phone performance (so they say.). Therefore if you wanted to run any other program on their platform, you needed to translate it into a native app. EVEN THAT'S NOT LEGALLY POSSIBLE ANYMORE!!!! This is a big **** YOU to all the other programming languages. Can you imagine if Oracle said that Groovy, JRuby or Jython were not allowed to run on the JVM anymore? Or Microsoft saying Java app are not allowed to run on any MS platform through an intermediary (JVM)? Well, this is exactly what Apple Inc. is doing?

This is the best part; THERE IS NOTHING YOU OR I CAN DO ABOUT IT!!! Right now, the iPhone is the market leader for new generation of smartphones ( there are not the market leader in smartphone, that crown goes to Nokia) supported by its ecosystem of developer providing more than 150k apps in the App Store.

Look there is no way I am going to learn Objective-C unless I am getting paid for it. All we can do that is hope for Android, RIM and Windows Phone 7 to gain a large enough market share and we would see history repeat itself again. I am definitely not saying that you should boycott their products but if you are looking to build a company and make profit developing software for mobile devices, maybe you should think twice about venturing on the iPhone (off course, unless you know Objective-C).

Feel free to let me know your thoughts and I am sure that the Apple fanatics would not hold their thoughts on this one.


  • Blogger Comments
  • Facebook Comments

5 comments :

  1. The iPhone is not the market leader for new generation of smartphones. RIM is the leader. There are more Blackberries sold than iPhones. See here:

    http://blogs.forbes.com/greatspeculations/2010/03/05/iphone-could-overtake-blackberry-market-share-in-2011/
    http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/02/23/apple-android-rim-gain-market-share/

    I for one hope that Android overtakes the iPhone this year. I actually believe that it will.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Being developer I have invested to build knowledge and skills. I cannot learn every programming language and would welcome tools that help me to cross-compile my code."

    Apple want you to invest on their platform and they deserve it. That is because of all the hard work they did to make it as amazing as it is. Besides they have been burned like this in the past, and they ain't going let another win32/java happen again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. With Android phones and tablets, we'll be soon getting devices that permit access to 100% of the Internet.

    And with Google and Adobe now cooperating closely to pre-integrate the Flash Player into Google Chrome browser to provide seemless experience, we'll eventually be seeing Android and Chrome OS devices that have Flash Player bolted in, in a tightly integrated manner. Flex will become a first class SDK for programming RIA applications for such devices.

    The "full web" is essentially going to become defined by what the Google Chrome browser enables access to. Android and Chrome OS devices will reflect same. Apple will the the obstinate company that refuses to let its customers have full access to the web.

    ReplyDelete
  4. And if Palm really sells itself to Wireless modem leader Huawai, even they together might play a role. Huawai just released an Android device for Red Bull Mobile, a branded mobile carrier they got in some CE countries. The whole lifestyle and event culture Red Bull got is certainly a killer app for Apple and iPhone.
    Just look at how they outsmarted both Coke and Pepsi in the last decade.
    Which is what smart mostly Android based phone vendors are likely to do to iPhone or Blackberry, and probably Symbian/Nokia, too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good Article - Ditto: http://blog.barbariancoders.com/2010/04/apple-now-with-two-scoops-of-dumbass.html

    ReplyDelete

Item Reviewed: Apple vs Geeks - is this the end of a love affair? Description: Rating: 5 Reviewed By: Unknown
Scroll to Top