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Palm webOS and Google Android after iPhone developers

By , Friday, Jun 11, 2010
18

It should come as no surprise that both Palm webOS and Google Android want iPhone developers on their platform. Mac developers have long been as passionate about their platform and incredibly talented in the apps they’ve delivered, and a lot of that has transferred over to iOS devices like the iPhone and now iPad.

Whether or not Apple is engaged in a platform war with Palm and Google it’s inarguable that the current generation of users want apps and right now Apple has an advantage in that area. Part of getting people to switch to another platform is making sure the apps they love are on that platform, and that means big name apps and fan favorites alike.

If Google is moving around behind the scenes, approaching core iPhone developers (the ones who make the most iPhone-like apps and enjoy high mind share) and trying to sneak them over to Android, Palm has gone one step further — openly courting them.

In the middle of Apple’s iOS-centric WWDC 2010 no less, Palm held a shindig of their own, a PDK (Plugin Developer Kit) soiree to wine and dine iPhone developers, point out the Pre has pretty much the same guts as the iPhone 3GS, and that a lot of applications can be ported over — especially games. And they made certain to highlight their openness, especially to emulators and cross-compilers. And they offered $1 million dollars in incentives.

Obviously users go where the apps are and developers make apps for where the users are, so the cycle can be vicious or virtuous, and just as obviously Google and Palm would much rather the latter.

Competition is good, different approaches are good, and options for developers are great, but whether or not Google and Palm can convince iPhone developers (and now iOS 4 developers) to become mobile developers is the question.

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  1. Adam says:

    No shvt sherlock. Who wouldn’t want these developers, iPhone apps are amazing.

  2. Eli says:

    Microsoft and google developers are the best.

  3. The_Reptile says:

    And then there’s Steve Jobs waiving $60 Million in potential iAd revenue at them to go along with 100 million devices. I wonder who they’re paying attention to.

  4. Amir says:

    Apple has all of the advantages here, the App Store is great, full of good apps. The OS Apple could work on. They created the App Store and have 150 million credit cards. Developers want to sell so until Android and Palm, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7 can start making some momentum, im sorry but no one will be leaving to those platforms.

  5. Matt says:

    I think @The_Reptile just spoke it perfectly and clearly…

  6. Adam says:

    @Amir, they have the best mobile OS hands down. Lacks a few features that most consumers don’t give a crap about, but it’s the smoothest, most solid and consistent OS available.

  7. (Copy of) Dev says:

    Apologies Rene, but you are trying to generate a story based on a false dichotomy here. Developers at this level are not going to be iOS developers OR Android developers. Would they love it if top developers worked only on their platforms? Sure, but Google is not foolish enough to think that, or wasteful enough to bribe top developers what they would require to ignore the huge iOS market.

    Rather, Google and Palm are trying to woo developers into developing for Android/PalmOS in addition to iOS. They would be stupid not to try.

  8. Drake says:

    Part of the reasons iPhone apps are amazing, though, is the simple, but intuitive SDK and Apple’s large number of APIs that are constantly changing to bigger, better, and newer things. This is what Palm and Google don’t really have or have on Apple’s level.

  9. JR says:

    Copy of Dev: Right on

  10. Rene Ritchie says:

    @dev. Exactly what I was saying. They want them on the other platforms too.

  11. Mac says:

    Not to mention the new iPhone is 60 percent shinier…. I wonder if people will respect me more if I? Nah.

  12. Tallbruva says:

    Google already has an NDK (Native Development Kit) but it only supports C and C++ native libraries ( http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/index.html#overview ).

    If they want iPhone developers, they needs to expand the NDK for Objective-C. Then developers would have greater incentive as there would be less work to cross compile.

  13. Tallbruva says:

    Google has also been in the habit of giving away free phones to developers.

    At the game developer’s conference they gave away free Nexus-Ones and Droids. At Google I/O they gave away free Droids or Nexus-Ones. Then, before it was all over, they gave away free Sprint EVO 4Gs. So each dev walked away with 2 free phones. In the Android Market, they gave free Nexus-Ones to devs with apps that had 5,000+ downloads and 3 stars.

    All of that is to say that Google is not above (or below) bribing developers in one form or another :-)

  14. Rudy says:

    Explain to me what iPhone fanboy wrote this update. Really? Why wouldn’t developer want to write programs for both? It’s very simple more platforms equals more money. I’m not brain washed and welcome an open market. The competition between google, android, and apple is welcomed by me the consumer. By the the way they are ALL great products!!!

  15. George says:

    Apple was first to get it on the market with that type of touch capability, but in reality what they put out was a half designed product. Its a phone not a dressup doll. That’s why they have all of apps.And now they have to deal with a call dropping issue.

    Their Os is childlike at best compared to what palm and droid have. And lets face it, if palm or droid wine and dine the developers with money intent it goes along with the saying “Money Talks and BS walks”.

  16. Chen says:

    Doing some browsing and noticed your site seems a little messed up in my K-meleon world-wide-web browser. But fortunately hardly anybody uses it any longer but you may want to appear into it.

  17. Appears as if Android 3.0 (codenamed Gingerbread) will be released sometime in December. Hopefully they can gear this release towards tablets, I’d want to see some level of competition with Apple’s iPad! I’m excited to quite possibly see one more rival in the market that doesn’t have countless restrictions or could just play Flash content.

  18. May be you are right.I think it is a good archive.Thank you!

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