With XCode 4, Apple Start to Love Their Developers!

As I mentioned on a previous blog, compared with Microsoft’s Visual Studio and the vast array of good quality reference material and samples available, the Apple development experience could easily be found wanting. With the latest version of their Development Environment – XCode, Apple is beginning to show the kind of love that developers, and in particular new developers, need.

For developers from a non-Apple development background, with a lot of experience in Java and .Net, one of the most awkward things about the older version of XCode and Apple’s Objective-C programming language, was the need to basically tell the computer when it should remember or forget things. In other languages, this is usually taken care of automatically, although sometimes you would choose to interfere in order to keep system resource usage down. The upshot was that a whole extra pointless layer of testing was added for something that provided no benefit to the end user.

Now Apple have introduced something called Automatic Reference Counting (ARC), which does the job of working out when to remember and when to forget about things. This does not sound revolutionary, but it has gotten rid of one of the more dangerous and common pitfalls of developing for iOS. Now, instead of worrying about the internals of the platform infrastructure, developers can just focus on giving the end user a great experience.

Having used XCode 4 for a while now, I can say this is probably the biggest single time saver, but Apple have put other things in too – including a helper that will suggest fixes for small problems on the fly. There is also a storyboard that allows developers to layout transitions between views visually. Overall, the improvements make the whole development experience more slick and less painful.

Why does this matter for people who aren’t developers? I think one of the upshots of this is that it makes native app development faster, easier and hence more cost-effective. Despite having spent time going down the PhoneGap route, these new development enhancements have persuaded me, at least, that native iPhone development is now actually faster and more convenient than HTML5 based frameworks. Indeed, even if you want to combine web content with your app, it is still, I would suggest, easier to hybridise properly by going native.

Whilst XCode is still not up to the level of Microsoft’s Visual Studio, it is getting very much better, which can only be to the advantage of developers and end-users alike. I look forward to more of the love in their next release!

Roundup of the Week (w/e 20/02/2011)

Last week’s tech headlines were filled with the endless stream of model releases and general hullabalo of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. To mobile vendors and resellers alike it was certainly a key event, but remarkably little news of substance emerged – predictably given the difficulty in getting one’s message heard above the noise.

No doubt about it though, Google’s made a huge impression with their sushi-bar style display with Android handsets passing tantalisingly by the assembled journalists, the mainfold shapes and sizes of Google’s challenge to Apple. Whilst this year will continue to be Apple’s in mobile and tablet terms, something tells me that next year will be Google’s.

Market News

• Mobile Subscription Wars – Apple Demands 30% Share of in-App Purchase Revenue, Google asks for 10%
  Apple is now demanding a 30% cut of any revenue passing through its market place (gross, not net). If content providers want in on Apple’s platform, they can’t offer their content cheaper anywhere else. The predictable reaction from content providers suggests that many of them will simply look for alternative platforms…In a direct counter to Apple, Google announced it’s One Pass subscription model with a more modest share of 10% going to Google and the user data passing to the content provider – a deal that is clearly going to be much more attractive than Apple’s for publishers and the music industry. Over the long term, I can’t help thinking Apple have got this badly wrong. For the analysis in full see https://takenobabble.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/that-30-revenue-cut-subscriptions-and-the-end-of-apple%E2%80%99s-empire/.

• Q4 2010 shows Mac Sales Growing Massively in Enterprise
  Whilst PC sales to business grew 9.7% for the quarter, Macs were up 65.4% – showing that Apple are making significant inroads into business – which is even more significant when it comes to IT departments deciding whether to use iOS devices later on for their mobile workforce.
  http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/index/~3/tyqA7r6pdtM/apple-outgrows-pc-market-for-nearly-five-years-aided-by-enterprise.ars

• This Weeks Punch-Up – Mozilla v. Microsoft over IE9
  Last time round Microsoft received a savaging from Google over the ownership of search results and Bing. This week, Mozilla suggested that IE9 was not a truly modern browser, given its poor support for HTML5 and its second-rate CSS compliance. Anyone in the web design business could tell you a tale of woe about time, effort and money wasted on the non-compliance of IE6/7/8 – let’s all pray that in practice Mozilla are wrong – and certainly this hasn’t put off the 2 million who downloaded the release candidate within a week of being published.
  http://opensource.cbronline.com/news/mozilla-attacks-microsoft-claims-ie9-not-modern-170211

• HTC Welcomes Microsoft / Nokia Tie-Up
  It is unusual for a company to welcome the mergers and acquisitions of key rivals, but CEO of major phone manufacturer HTC has welcomed the Nokia / Microsoft tie up on the basis that it will stabilise the Windows Phone 7 ecosystem, helping to provide a more secure footing for HTC’s own Windows 7 offerings.
  http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/15/htc-ceo-peter-chou-on-microsoft-nokia-partnership-itll-make/

• $25 Million Injection for Android Marketplace Alternative GetJar
  Android Alternative marketplace GetJar gets $25 Million funding – innovative cross-mobile marketplace shows that Google’s own market place won’t get everything its own way.
  http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/DN6_DoWLB5s/getjar-secures-25-million-funding-tiger-global-management

CMS / Knowledge Management

• WordPress 3.1 Release Immanent
  WordPress 3.1 due immanently, with a number of worthwhile enhancements relating to the admin toolbar, and enhanced search.
  http://cmsreport.com/content/2011/02/first-look-whats-new-wordpress-31

Web

• IE9 Offers “Pinning” to the Task Bar in Windows 7 as a Key Traffic Builder for Sites
  With the advent of IE9, it is now possible to have your site, rather than just the web browser, pinned to the task bar on Windows 7.  This is already proving a major traffic booster to sites that are using it, even though IE9 is still only in Released Candidate.
  http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20031845-75.html

• Google Nearing Completion of Google Native Client for Browsers
  Anyone who attempted to use Microsoft’s ActiveX client plugins for delivering complex functionality to the web in years gone by may well have some apprehensions about the complications of using a similar platform. Google, however, assure us that the new Google Native Client will have none of the complexity and security concerns of Microsoft’s aged technology. If Google pull it off, it will herald the advent of full-powered low-level code running at high speed as proper apps within browsers – let’s hope they succeed.
  http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/20/googles-native-client-almost-ready-for-takeoff-ready-to-make/

Social Media

• Twitter banished UberMedia, then readmits them
  Twitter doesn’t often make the news for reasons other than growth or potential mergers and acquisitions. This week, however, Twitter suspended use of its API by UberMedia’s popular Twidroyd Twitter app, citing irregularities in manipulation of user posts for money. This caused somewhat of an outcry, as it immediately led to the blocking of access to Twitter, through the app, of a large number of users. Twitter has relented on the basis of reassurances offered by Ubermedia – though this will require an application update to be released by the publishers.
  http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/pbRCEttK-W0/ubermedia-responds-twidroyds-suspension

Tablets

• Apple Creating Touch Panel Shortage for Tablet Competitors
  Apple is currently occupying about 60% of global touch panel production – leaving precious little capacity for the competition. This will make it very difficult for smaller suppliers who don’t have the muscle of Dell, HP, Motorola, Samsung and the like to compete – which is surely bad for the consumer.
  http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/17/apple-creating-touch-panel-shortages-for-tablet-competition/

Android Market Growth Outstripping Apple Store

• The App Genome Project by Lookout Security compared in detail the development of the Android Market with that of the Apple Store, highlighting some eye catching trends. Over the period since August last year, the Apple Store has grown by 44% and the Android market by 127%. The proportion of paid apps, and particularly paid apps over 99 cents in the Android Market has also markedly risen. As one might expect, as a more mature market, the Apple Store is nearer to saturation – but if these comparative rates of growth are sustained, the Android Market will surpass the Apple Store at some point mid-2012.
  http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/219780/app_genome_project_finds_android_apps_outpacing_ios.html

• Sony to Release 9.4” Android Tablet
  Sony building a games and entertainment focussed 9.4” Honeycomb tablet – September launch – c. $599.
  http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/9_HblubnzPY/sony-reportedly-working-94-inch-s1-honeycomb-tablet

Mobile

• When do you Make Ice Cream out of Gingerbread and Honeycomb?
  The next Android OS, rumoured to be called “Ice Cream”, will bring elements from both current generation of Mobile Android (Gingerbread) and its new tablet OS (honeycomb) to both mobile and tablets.
  http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Q011Mukn-50/ice-cream-will-combine-features-gingerbread-and-honeycomb

• Samsung Gunning for iPod touch
  Samsung will be releasing 4” and 5” wi-fi only Android devices based on the Galaxy S Smartphone – pricing set to be “competitive with iPod touch”, release date not yet announced. This is significant because as yet the iPod touch has not yet faced significant competition.
  http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/index/~3/d2BbUYMQYM0/samsung-aims-for-ipod-touch-with-wifi-only-galaxy-s-variants.ars

Desktop

• Mac App Store off to Good Start – Microsoft an Early Publisher!
  The launch of the Mac App Store is yet another significant move for Apple, bringing the tendency of users to buy fragments of functionality, rather than major app suites, to the desktop.  To a lesser degree this experience already exists in the form of Browser Plug-ins, particularly on Chrome, but the move by Apple is sure to be duplicated on other platforms, thus changing the dynamics, not to mention the economics, of the purchase of desktop software. Ironically, Microsoft were in on the game early, providing a Mac based version of software to connect to Windows 7 mobile.
  http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/index/~3/KOHgUntq_N0/ios-developers-making-leap-to-the-mac-thanks-to-mac-app-store.ars

This Week I got Excited About

• Evernote
  I have tried all manner of personal knowledge management tools – but have only recently tried Evernote – and I’m mightily impressed – specifically because the variety of apps and browser plug ins available means that you can capture virtually anything you are up to on the fly, and have it synced via a web account with all of your devices. For a good overview of what you might want to do with it, see http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/the-world/article/14-practical-ways-to-use-evernote-guy-kawasaki

• Twitter Search + Google Reader = Twitter Archives
  Ok, so you are plugged in to endless Twitter feeds to get the low down on what’s going on – but how do you turn this into a useful research resource? See my blog post to find out how – https://takenobabble.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/turn-twitter-searches-into-research-archives-using-google-reader/

That 30% Revenue Share, Subscriptions and the End of Apple’s Empire

Why are Apple products such a joy to use? Because their every aspect is part of a clearly defined singular vision, a vision that is kept in place by a zealous control over every aspect of its supply chain, OS and application ecosystem.

Steve Jobs’ instincts have so far managed to prevent this monomania lurching into out-and-out megalomania, but has it now overstepped the mark? Contrary to the Apple Orwellian 1984 campaign of the 90s, it is no longer the subversive facing down the might of the totalitarian Microsoft Machine – now it is the machine.

For anyone who hasn’t been connected to the net for the last week, Apple is now demanding a 30% cut of any revenue passing through its market place (gross, not net). If content providers want in on Apple’s platform, they can’t offer their content cheaper anywhere else. There must be very few business that can afford to give away a 30% cut of potential revenue in the current market place and hope to remain in business for very long. At the same time, Apple will not guarantee passing along user information for the fee – users will have to opt in, meaning that the relationship stays firmly with Apple rather than the provider. Put this egregious demand together with Apple’s constant gerrymandering of rules and regulations, as well as its flip-flopping over the use of 3^rd party development tools, and one can see an unhealthy degree of contempt for both content providers and the Apple development community in general.

For the record, I have an iPhone, I like Apple products and I think Apple are to be congratulated for the trailblazing that they have achieved with such amazing consistency. However, I hope that the current anti-trust cases that seem to be gathering pace in the US and Europe will result in them receiving clear signal that it is simply not possible to operate with impunity in the commercial market place in any position of market hegemony. Perhaps Apple should remember how Microsoft ended up in deep trouble in Europe simply for the way it packaged IE with Windows – they weren’t even demanding any financial reward for things associated with IE.

At the moment Apple might feel like an irresistible force – but let us not forget that the greatest extent of empire often occurs at some point after the decline has set in – just as it did with the British Empire. Whilst Apple will no doubt to continue grow for some time, I can’t help thinking that their new subscription model and its aftermath will mark the passing of its zenith.

Apple’s hold-everything-close-and-tight approach to getting things done seems is in stark contrast with Google’s lets-give-everything-away-to-everyone ethos of getting everyone possible to buy into their preferred future – somehow the latter seems more in step with the age of Social Media, Open Source and Crowd Sourcing. Nevertheless, there will, I think, always be space for singular vision – but it remains to be seen whether Apple, in a post-Jobs succession, will have that vision.

For Fortune magazine’s take on this see http://rss.cnn.com/~r/fortunebrainstormtech/~3/HkozhYGYrnI/