A year ago, I wrote
I no longer enjoy building software for the iPhone because of the bureaucracy and infrastructure that surrounds it. I can build great software for the Mac without the headaches and bullshit of dealing directly with Cupertino and their AppStore.
Shortly after that post, I announced that I had sold both of my iPhone apps and was going back to focusing on the Mac platform.
As for me, I’m back to focusing exclusively on the Mac platform improving on Check Off and Today while also working on another larger scale project in the garage. I won’t rule out a return to the iPhone platform in the future, but it won’t be before Apple changes more of their policies and behaviors towards their development partners. The in-app purchases announced recently are a start, but there’s still miles to go before it’s anywhere near where I want it to be.
Those posts circulated around the Internet and gave me the stigma as “the anti-iPhone guy”1.
Now, almost a year to the day since that all transpired, I am about to release a new iOS application. What changed?
Primarily, the iPad.
When the iPad was released, it changed my perception of iOS as a platform. I was more than comfortable sitting on the sidelines and toiling away on my Mac products while the rest of the Cocoa developers focused on the gold rush. I’ve never really had interest in building software that’s geolocation enhanced, a cloud solution or something that enhanced your social graph. Along the same lines, I never had much interest in porting my existing Mac products to the iPhone.
When Apple unveiled the iPad, I saw where Apple is taking their platform. The Mac will be here for a long time to come, but the iPad stuck out to me as the general purpose computing device. Something that will permeate homes and offices. As someone who builds productivity software, it was hard to sit on the sidelines when there were so many ideas simmering in my head.
Besides the iPad, the iOS platform has improved in the past year. It’s still far from being perfect, but if you look at my list of reasons for quitting, each of them have been improved.
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Baseless app rejections: Sadly still a reality, though they seem to be fewer and fewer. I don’t know whether to chalk that up as an improvement on Apple’s side or developers being more cautious. Perhaps both.
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An unsustainable pricing structure: The iPad is improving the pricing of apps. The sweet spot for iPad apps seems to be somewhere between the $5 and $10 range, which is still a far cry from the desktop platforms, but far superior to the 99 cent race to the bottom that is the iPhone. Plus as Marco put it, there are two App Stores. I’m planning to be a part of App Store B.
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Piss-poor developer relations: When I left last time, the Apple developer forums weren’t in existence, review times were approximately two weeks and there was no real outlet for developers to contact Apple about issues2. Today, review times are anywhere from a few days to a week, which is still not the 48 hours I’d like, but an improvement. Apple also has a method of requesting an expedited review, which is a godsend when you need it.
Developer relations is still the one area that I think Apple needs to most improve on. My blood was boiling as I watched Steve Jobs on stage at WWDC defending the App Store review system with his “deal with it or get lost” attitude. Apple still has a ways to go when it comes to humility and admitting there are things you are handling wrong or could improve on. Telling developers that the system is perfectly fine and the Web is still a “sweet solution” is not the proper message.
- Blackbox review system: I am still waiting for Apple to offer a pre-approval opportunity for developers of applications that straddle the line of questionability, but a year later I think the review system is a bit more understood than this time last year.
A year from now, I have little doubt that this situation will be even better. I’m still waiting for the ability to handle volume licensing, upgrade licenses and trial versions of products. Hopefully we’ll see those in the next year.
So I’m back, but with some hesitation. I still consider the Mac to be my full-time gig, but the iPad is too alluring to not dedicate a good chunk of my time to.
Second Gear’s new iOS app is called Elements and will be available soon. If you want a sneak preview, check out MacStories.