So, yesterday Apple hit a grand slam home run yesterday with its announcement of the iPhone SDK. Guy Kawasaki hit a home run with his interview of Steve Ballmer. “Don’t go monkey boy on me.” Steve Gillmor had a News Gang Live yesterday to talk about both of these things.
I’ve been busy with my Qik channel. Got an interview with the Internet Explorer executives where we talked about its moves into Web standards. Also, met up with Concept Share’s co-founders who showed me a new version of its really cool service that lets you work remotely with graphic designers.
Now I’m on my way to SXSW.
Scobleizer 
I watched the live blog and then the full video of Apple’s announcement yesterday. While they are definitely taking a step forward with the release of Exchange ActiveSync and the iPhone SDK, I still think they aren’t enterprise ready.
The major limitation for enterprise readiness is the distribution of iPhone apps. Apple decided they wanted to control the distribution of apps (a la Facebook) to prevent malicious or improper apps. This also prevents an enterprise from releasing any apps exclusively for their employees.
Also, this isn’t limited to just enterprise, but the SDK doesn’t allow multitasking. This means that AIM application demoed will not run behind the scenes. So you can’t surf the net, while chatting with your buddies. This allows Apple to prevent applications from draining your battery, but also limits the power of the developer.
All in all, the announcement was a great step forward, but just a v1 step forward.
LikeLike
I watched the live blog and then the full video of Apple’s announcement yesterday. While they are definitely taking a step forward with the release of Exchange ActiveSync and the iPhone SDK, I still think they aren’t enterprise ready.
The major limitation for enterprise readiness is the distribution of iPhone apps. Apple decided they wanted to control the distribution of apps (a la Facebook) to prevent malicious or improper apps. This also prevents an enterprise from releasing any apps exclusively for their employees.
Also, this isn’t limited to just enterprise, but the SDK doesn’t allow multitasking. This means that AIM application demoed will not run behind the scenes. So you can’t surf the net, while chatting with your buddies. This allows Apple to prevent applications from draining your battery, but also limits the power of the developer.
All in all, the announcement was a great step forward, but just a v1 step forward.
LikeLike
The SDK places some very serious limitations on the kind of software we can develop. In particular, it won’t allow us to create daemons that run in the background or download additional modules, which means we can’t build the product we want to build (Lojack for iPhones).
LikeLike
The SDK places some very serious limitations on the kind of software we can develop. In particular, it won’t allow us to create daemons that run in the background or download additional modules, which means we can’t build the product we want to build (Lojack for iPhones).
LikeLike
I was pretty excited by the whole keynote. The lack of background tasks is a bit of a bummer. But I’m guessing that does not mean “your” app can’t be multithreaded. I’m wondering what sort of multithread communications can be performed with one’s application – once you do have the “stage”.
DJK
LikeLike
I was pretty excited by the whole keynote. The lack of background tasks is a bit of a bummer. But I’m guessing that does not mean “your” app can’t be multithreaded. I’m wondering what sort of multithread communications can be performed with one’s application – once you do have the “stage”.
DJK
LikeLike
I think Apple got it just right with the SDK. The devil of course will be in the details. I think the best and worst thing about iphone apps is the apps store. Best because it will be a consistent available place to get apps from a consumer’s point of view. Worst because I fear (a bit) what Apple will approve (or not). Based on apple’s own SDK documentation, Java is out (not that I would care one little bit), but of course Apple and Sun can work the separately. The point I am making is that Apple is always in control of what gets on the device, in some case, this won’t be desirable.
LikeLike
I think Apple got it just right with the SDK. The devil of course will be in the details. I think the best and worst thing about iphone apps is the apps store. Best because it will be a consistent available place to get apps from a consumer’s point of view. Worst because I fear (a bit) what Apple will approve (or not). Based on apple’s own SDK documentation, Java is out (not that I would care one little bit), but of course Apple and Sun can work the separately. The point I am making is that Apple is always in control of what gets on the device, in some case, this won’t be desirable.
LikeLike
Someone said:
The major limitation for enterprise readiness is the distribution of iPhone apps. Apple decided they wanted to control the distribution of apps (a la Facebook) to prevent malicious or improper apps. This also prevents an enterprise from releasing any apps exclusively for their employees.
You are mistaken. If you’d listened all the way through to the Q&A, you’d have heard an audience question about exactly that scenario. Phil Schiller responded that Apple was committed to releasing an enterprise version of the App Store.
LikeLike
Someone said:
The major limitation for enterprise readiness is the distribution of iPhone apps. Apple decided they wanted to control the distribution of apps (a la Facebook) to prevent malicious or improper apps. This also prevents an enterprise from releasing any apps exclusively for their employees.
You are mistaken. If you’d listened all the way through to the Q&A, you’d have heard an audience question about exactly that scenario. Phil Schiller responded that Apple was committed to releasing an enterprise version of the App Store.
LikeLike
@cgoblen – true Phil did say “it’s being worked on”, but that seemed liked a non-committal answer. No mention of when to expect it, how it would work or anything. Sure that’s the Apple style for them not to let anything out of the bag, but you can’t convince a corporation to build internal apps with just that statement.
LikeLike
@cgoblen – true Phil did say “it’s being worked on”, but that seemed liked a non-committal answer. No mention of when to expect it, how it would work or anything. Sure that’s the Apple style for them not to let anything out of the bag, but you can’t convince a corporation to build internal apps with just that statement.
LikeLike