Apple WDC2008
I have been following the iPhone news from Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference 2008.
I commented in March on the inability to have iPhone long running applications and how this would limit development. Well, today Apple have said that the #1 request has been for background support.
They stick by their decision that the wrong solution is to allow background processes that are bad for battery life and performance. Instead, from September, there will be a push notification service (echos of Java ME). When the application is not running, the developer’s servers push notification triggers to Apple and Apple pushes updates from their servers to the iPhone. We are told this solution will be extremely scalable.
I am not so sure about this. Most long running applications I have developed remain in background until an event happens on the phone (e.g. Incoming/outgoing call, sms, application accessed, location reached or whatever). Will the developer’s or Apple’s server know all these kinds of things?
More news on the Application Store. There won’t be any charge to anyone for free applications. The store will also be available globally to 62 countries.
There will also be a new way to distribute applications (probably to pacify the Enterprise). A new ad-hoc method will allow applications to be distributed in any way, for example via Intranet or Internet, to up to 100 authorised iPhones. However, I am not sure 100 iPhones will cover that many people in a large organisation. It’s certainly not a viable way for ISVs to distribute applications.
However, I would argue that the largest affect for developers will not be due to new technical features. The rollout to 70 countries with devices costing only $199 for the 3G 8GB version should ignite the market. The iPhone may well become a real worldwide competitor to Symbian, Windows Mobile and Android phones before they are even realised.