I am just back from holiday and reading around the fallout from the iPhone SDK release. I have also tried downloading again and I can now download even though I am in the UK.

Many people are complaining that the SDK will only allow 3rd  party applications to be developed that can be run one at a time. When a new one starts, the previous one will close. People seem to think data will be lost. If applications are written to save data then I think this shouldn’t be the case.

What I find interesting is that this is the complete opposite of Windows Mobile that people also complained (and still complain) about. Windows Mobile keeps an application running even when the user thinks they have closed it (via the top right close icon). For the last 10 years, many developers have argued that users don’t understand this behaviour because when they close a PC Windows App, it actually exits. Microsoft’s argument has always been that keeping applications running allows them to be more instantly available should they be needed again.

[As an aside, some developers purposely add ‘Exit’ commands to their menus so users can actually exit the app. There are also many 3rd party utilities should you dislike the default behaviour.]

Back to the iPhone, what does this mean? I think it’s less about lost data or incorrect user assumed behaviour. The issues are more to do with the types of application that won’t be possible. In fact, the two applications I am working on at the moment for separate companies (one IM and another advertising based) wouldn’t be as useful on a platform that doesn’t allow them to be running all the time.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 6:25 pm and is filed under Mobile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.