The Competition: Microsoft Gives Devs Guide to iCloning iPhone Apps for Windows Mobile
According to sibling site WMExperts, Microsoft has released a developers guide for porting iPhone apps to -- shock and horror -- Windows Mobile.
Can't blame them, though, 65,000 apps via a unified, on-device store, fart apps and rejected apps aside, is a huge competitive gap to make up, especially when your previous generation was stuck in a Windows 95-style user experience.
Selfishly, we hope the competition helps force out those fart apps and get those rejected apps back into Apple's iTunes App Store where they belong...
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
| Tweet |
|
|
Leave a Reply
Note: Comments must be civil, respectful, and on-topic. If a comment does not add to the conversation, if it contains spam advertising, or inappropriate language or content, it will be removed. Insulting the topic, author, staff, site, network, or other commenters will result in the comment being marked as spam and potential prevent future comments from appearing on the site. Do not post as a business or your comment will likely be confused with spam. Comments containing links may be held for moderation. Relax, enjoy, and share in the discussion.
Watch Microsoft approve Google Voice. The internets might blow up.
Who the hell cares? The more apps on more devices the more better.
Honestly I would say the real competition for Apple is the user. If they keep taking this closed ecosystem crap pretty long people will get fed up.
Sting7k, it doesn't matter if Microsoft approves Google Voice for its marketplace. You'll still be able to get it.
The majority of consumers do not care about apple's "closed ecosystem". Deal with it. The average consumer buying an iPhone wants an iPhone. They don't care about how apple does business. Such things are only a concern to geeks like us posting on message boards. That's the truth.
I think this is good because that means their is more competition in the Mobile App Store Market which means we get a lot better games and we get more approved because apple will want to have more than Microsoft.
@The Real Truth you're 100% right. Of the 40+ million iPhone/iPod Touch users out there, maybe less than 1% gives a flying fuck about this stuff. It's the same thing with any mainstream device. The masses just accept it for what it is and the vocal minority cries bloody murder.
I am a developer. I dislike some of Apple's SDK restrictions, and hate is not nearly a strong enough word for my feelings on App Store policies. I wish end users were fed up, but they are not now and perhaps they never will be. For end users to care:
1) 3rd party applications would have to be a driving force in smartphone sales. They were/are in computers, but in phones...the jury is still out.
2) Even if #1 proves true, there still has to be one or more "killer" apps on another phone that are not on the iPhone, either for technical or policy reasons.
Without both of these conditions, every good developer could leave the iPhone, and neither Apple nor end users would care. However, if those conditions hold true, Apple risks making the same mistake with the iPhone that they did in the early days of the Mac.
As a developer, I know a range of applications will never be released on the iPhone. As an iPhone-loving end users, it did not impact my purchase, because none of those applications are must-haves to me.
As both, however, I fear that eventually Apple's tight grip will result in that awesome game or incredibly useful tool being developed on Android, Pre, or WinMo first, or, worse, exclusively. Only at THAT point, and not before, will regular end users notice, but by that point it may be too late to correct the underlying problem.
@Fassy:
It may be closer than you think.
Should Apple not allow the recently submitted Spotify client without having something similar up their own sleeve, they will miss out on the next paradigm of digital music distribution. And as Spotify clients will be made available on several other mobile platforms this may prove critical to their future success.
Microsoft has always had a reputation of being developer friendly, so this doesn't come as a huge surprise.
I agree that, right now, the users just don't care, in general. The guy who sold me my iPhone had his own iPhone packed full of the above-referenced fart apps? Why? Obviously, it helps him sell the phone. Most people just don't know or care that the iPhone could be more than it us right now. I had heard a lot about the iPhone when before I bought it, but didn't hear about jailbreaking until almost a month after. And I pay attention to that stuff. The average person does not.
But as smart phones become more popular, the same thing will happen to them as has happened with desktop and laptop computers. People buy Macs because they "just work" and they don't have to think about them as much. People buy PCs because they are cheaper, more upgradable, but the trade-off is less stability and the need to learn more tech skills. The iPhone will always have a market even if they keep their draconian app policies, with people who don't need more apps, and are willing to pay more for a sleek, easy device. I imagine a new device will rise to fill the need for the geeks like me, no firmware hacking required.
Less stability? Lol win7 unlike osx never crashes or hangs. Even my vista install never crashed.
@truth. Windows 7 never crashes or hangs? Please let's wait for it to actually come out before making such statements. OSX crashing on you...vista not crashing. Good for you. Too bad it means nothing. For every person with your experience I'll find several with the opposite. As someone who has extensivly used both OSX and vista I can honestly say the act of getting a tooth pulled sans novacaine is more appealing than using vista. I've used OSX on my home computer for the past 7 years without a single problem. Not one. Does that mean it's better or more stable? of course it's proof of nothing really. Maybe just good luck? I personally think that until there's an actual study done using the scientific method everyone should just shut it about what OS is better. Personal experience proves nothing. Your friends/family members experience means even less.
I am an extensive Windows user, having used every version the have ever released. My brother works for Microsoft. But my experience has led me to the understanding that Windows us less stable, and often geared toward the tech-savy. Vista crashed my machine so much that I had to downgrade to XP. Win 7 appears to be awesome, so that's great, but I have had some driver issues as well as a strange bug or two that required registry edits to solve. No big deal to me, a deal breaker for people who want a machine that is basically an appliance that always just works and they never have to know how or why.