iPhone disappoints mobile developers
San Francisco (InfoWorld) - No one ever said Apple marketers weren't clever. So if they wanted to start a firestorm of ISVs developing applications for the iPhone, how better to do that than to make development as simple as possible with the least barriers?
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple is pitching the iPhone to ISVs as the easiest mobile target anywhere — development 'as simple as possible with the least barriers' — yet the confirmed reaction among mobile developers on 2007-06-14 is disappointment, suggesting the low-barrier pitch and the actual tooling on offer are not the same thing.
The same-day evidence frames what Apple means by simple: the Safari for Windows public beta landed with more than 1 million downloads in its first 48 hours, but also shipped with three security vulnerabilities patched within hours of launch — the browser is simultaneously the developer pitch and its stress test.
First-order effects
- ISVs targeting the iPhone are pointed at Safari-based web development rather than native APIs, with the just-released Safari for Windows beta serving as their build-and-test environment.
- Apple must defend the pitch immediately: the Windows beta crossed 1 million downloads in two days but required a 3.0.1 release fixing three separate vulnerabilities that emerged within hours.
Second-order effects
- Sustained developer disappointment puts pressure on Apple to formalize an iPhone toolchain beyond the browser, a question rivals and ISVs will watch as the device approaches its official release — fueled further by rumors of iPhones already spotted in public use.
- A functioning Safari on Windows extends Apple's browser battleground onto Microsoft's desktop base, where the download figures give Apple a marketing claim and the rapid patch cadence a credibility test.
Third-order effects
- If the web-first stance holds, Apple establishes a template for platform owners controlling developer access through the browser rather than a native SDK — the gatekeeping structure that would define who profits from iPhone software.
- Day-one security patches on a browser positioned as a development platform signal that whoever owns the runtime absorbs the patching burden directly, a structural cost independent of carrier partners.
The trend: Mobile platforms are deciding whether developer access runs through the open browser or a controlled native SDK, and Apple's web-centric iPhone bet is the earliest large-scale test of that fork.