Is that an iPhone in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

Is that an iPhone in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me? Pete Forde / @peteforde Unspace Interactive

Are you ready?

Are you ready for yet another Gradient-themed Keynote presentation?

You’d best get pumped.

Partner

Unspace

Guy Kawasaki

25,000 Applications!

$160 Million dollars!

Why develop for iPhone?

Why develop for iPhone? • Roughly 18-20 million iPhones sold to date

Why develop for iPhone? • Roughly 18-20 million iPhones sold to date • 30 million if you include iPod Touch

Why develop for iPhone? • Roughly 18-20 million iPhones sold to date • 30 million if you include iPod Touch • iTunes Application Store (iTAS)

Why develop for iPhone? • Roughly 18-20 million iPhones sold to date • 30 million if you include iPod Touch • iTunes Application Store (iTAS) • Indirect marketing through association

Why develop for iPhone? Because it’s awesome.

Lim Ding Wen

This is his 20th project.

So, you want to develop an iPhone application...

SDK free to the curious, but a developer membership is $99. You only need it if you plan to publish.

Submitting an app costs nothing.

Apps can be free or sold for $0.99 to $999.99

Apple takes 30% of the gross proﬁts, and they pay out at irregular intervals. Slowly.

[By comparison, people freak out when credit card processors charge 1-4%.]

Apple recently announced in-app billing, which will enable swarms of micropayment business models.

Killer start-up idea #452: “You want my digits? Pair with my iPhone and pay $200. Show me your Bluetooth.”

There will be no in-app micro-payments for free apps. That means no Trialware business model.

Other business models • Embedded ad networks (AdMob)

Other business models • Embedded ad networks (AdMob) • Paid ads or exchange ads

Other business models • Cydia: an alternative app store for jail- broken phones

Other business models • Cydia: an alternative app store for jail- broken phones • Everyone’s a criminal

Other business models • Cydia: an alternative app store for jail- broken phones • Everyone’s a criminal • Australia

Other business models • Cydia: an alternative app store for jail- broken phones • Everyone’s a criminal • Australia • 1.7 million iPhones with Cydia installed

2 Development Paths • Standards HTML + CSS + Javascript web apps running in Mobile Safari

2 Development Paths • Standards HTML5 + CSS3 + Javascript web apps running in Mobile Safari • Native apps written in Objective-C

2 Development Paths In the beginning, Apple told us that there would be no SDK and all applications would be Ajax applications. There was much rejoicing from web geeks and much angry shouting from 3D game programmers.

Web Apps • No need to learn a new toolkit

Web Apps • No need to learn a new toolkit • Safari supports CSS3 and fast Javascript, plus access to GPS and the accelerometer

Web Apps • No need to learn a new toolkit • Safari supports CSS3 and fast Javascript, plus access to GPS and the accelerometer • Developers can target a single device with a speciﬁc screen size

Web Apps • No need to learn a new toolkit • Safari supports CSS3 and fast Javascript, plus access to GPS and the accelerometer • Developers can target a single device with a speciﬁc screen size • Updates occur instantly on the server

Web Apps • No direct hardware access

Web Apps • No direct hardware access • Can’t be sold in iTAS

Web Apps • No direct hardware access • Can’t be sold in iTAS • Users must type URLs

Web Apps • No direct hardware access • Can’t be sold in iTAS • Users must type URLs • Subject to server availability

Native Apps • Direct hardware access (3D, Camera, GPS)

Native Apps • Direct hardware access (3D, Camera, GPS) • Faster, compiled code which can be sync’d

Native Apps • Direct hardware access (3D, Camera, GPS) • Faster, compiled code which can be sync’d • Apps have icons and can be sold in iTAS

Native Apps • Direct hardware access (3D, Camera, GPS) • Faster, compiled code which can be sync’d • Apps have icons and can be sold in iTAS • Access to iPod, Calendar, Address Book...

Native Apps • Direct hardware access (3D, Camera, GPS) • Faster, compiled code which can be sync’d • Apps have icons and can be sold in iTAS • Access to iPod, Calendar, Address Book... • XCode IDE and debugging tools

Native Apps • XCode IDE and debugging tools

Native Apps • XCode IDE and debugging tools • Must learn Objective-C, Cocoa

Native Apps • XCode IDE and debugging tools • Must learn Objective-C, Cocoa • Must port to other platforms

Native Apps • XCode IDE and debugging tools • Must learn Objective-C, Cocoa • Must port to other platforms • Apple can reject your application at whim

Native Apps • XCode IDE and debugging tools • Must learn Objective-C, Cocoa • Must port to other platforms • Apple can reject your application at whim • Relatively few Objective-C coders around

Now, there is another way...

Hybrid Applications

Hybrid Web/Native Apps • Wrap Safari in a Site Speciﬁc Browser (SSB)

Hybrid Web/Native Apps • Wrap Safari in a Site Speciﬁc Browser (SSB) • quot;A site speciﬁc browser (SSB) is a software application that is dedicated to accessing pages from a single website. SSBs typically simplify the web browser by excluding the menus, toolbars and browser chrome that are external to the workings of a the site.quot;

Hybrid Web/Native Apps • Wrap Safari in a Site Speciﬁc Browser (SSB) • quot;A site speciﬁc browser (SSB) is a software application that is dedicated to accessing pages from a single website. SSBs typically simplify the web browser by excluding the menus, toolbars and browser chrome that are external to the workings of a the site.quot; • The best of both worlds.

Case Study: TheScore iPhone Edition

TheScore iPhone Edition • First commercial iPhone app in Canada

TheScore iPhone Edition • First commercial iPhone app in Canada • Rails app which processes and caches a seriously evil XML feed and presents a customized iPhone user experience

TheScore iPhone Edition • First commercial iPhone app in Canada • Rails app which processes and caches a seriously evil XML feed and presents a customized iPhone user experience • http://iphone.thescore.com/

TheScore iPhone Edition • First commercial iPhone app in Canada • Rails app which processes and caches a seriously evil XML feed and presents a customized iPhone user experience • http://iphone.thescore.com/ • #1 iPhone sports web application

TheScore iPhone Edition • Announcement of App Store presented a dilemma: stick with proven tech investment, or follow the hype and re-write

TheScore iPhone Edition • Announcement of App Store presented a dilemma: stick with proven tech investment, or follow the hype and re-write • After experimentation, we realized that we could create a SSB and potentially add additional features

TheScore iPhone Edition • Announcement of App Store presented a dilemma: stick with proven tech investment, or follow the hype and re-write • After experimentation, we realized that we could create a SSB and potentially add additional features • “Native” app a huge success, no waiting for approvals on changes or bug ﬁxes

TheScore iPhone Edition • Content easily re-purposed for other mobile platforms such as Blackberry

TheScore iPhone Edition • Rails’ lets us implement features faster, which means cheaper • Content easily re-purposed for other mobile platforms such as Blackberry

TheScore iPhone Edition • Rails’ lets us implement features faster, which means cheaper • Content easily re-purposed for other mobile platforms such as Blackberry • Facilitates iterative development and experimenting with subsets of users

TheScore iPhone Edition • Rails’ lets us implement features faster, which means cheaper • Content easily re-purposed for other mobile platforms such as Blackberry • Facilitates iterative development and experimenting with subsets of users • Most users have no idea it’s hybrid

Business Models, Revisited Scenario #1

Business Models, Revisited You sell 25k copies of an app for $1.95. That'd be $50k, except Apple takes 30% so we'll sell 36,500 copies. Let's assume a 3% conversion rate from people reading about the app to sales.

Business Models, Revisited That means that you'd have to have 1.2 million people consider buying your app, or about 5% of the total number of iPhone owners. That seems unrealistic without a marketing budget.

Business Models, Revisited Scenario #2 aka “The 37signals”

Business Models, Revisited Customers subscribe to a web service for $5/m ($60/year). You need about 1000 customers, once you factor in payment and infrastructure costs.

Business Models, Revisited Oh, and in year two... it’s all proﬁt. With a one-time purchase, there is no year two. There’s not necessarily a reason for them to give you any more money.

Business Models, Revisited iPhones feature the most sophisticated mobile web browser in history

Business Models, Revisited Full support for CSS3 transitions and a lightning-fast compiled Javascript interpreter

Business Models, Revisited Are you still so convinced that people need to click on an icon to consider a service to be useful? Why not take the power back?

Business Models, Revisited Publish your app as a web service for iPhone. Potentially you could support Android, and other platforms, too. Provide an optional Site Speciﬁc Browser.

Business Models, Revisited Pay Apple $0 overhead. Win at life.

Business Models, Revisited Perhaps it could even have push notiﬁcations, if they ever launch it.

Case Study: iWik => Wikipedia

Meet Hampton Catlin • Employee #1 at Unspace

Meet Hampton Catlin • Employee #1 at Unspace • Creator of Haml, the most popular Rails template engine

Meet Hampton Catlin • Employee #1 at Unspace • Creator of Haml, the most popular Rails template engine • An outspoken queer developer

Meet Hampton Catlin • Employee #1 at Unspace • Creator of Haml, the most popular Rails template engine • An outspoken queer developer • Wrote iWik on a dare

Meet Hampton Catlin • iWik was created because Wikipedia looked like shit on iPhone, and was hard to use

Meet Hampton Catlin • iWik was created because Wikipedia looked like shit on iPhone, and was hard to use • Hampton’s app took requests and used public APIs to fetch the data, which was then scrubbed and reformatted for the iPhone

Meet Hampton Catlin • iWik sold well over 60,000 copies at $0.99 a copy

Meet Hampton Catlin • iWik sold well over 60,000 copies at $0.99 a copy • The ﬁrst version was built in three days while visiting home

Meet Hampton Catlin • iWik sold well over 60,000 copies at $0.99 a copy • The ﬁrst version was built in three days while visiting home • A hybrid web app, all it does is format something freely available

Meet Hampton Catlin • Wikipedia offered to buy iWik, instead of harassing him • In addition, they brought him in on contract to run their mobile division on a nice retainer • Wikipedia is his dream job

What Apple doesn’t want you to do.

“Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Matthew 19:24

“Not gonna lie... it'd be easier to get Steve Ballmer using an iPod, than for you to get a straight answer on why Apple rejected your app.” @peteforde http://twitter.com/peteforde/status/1461939233

Secret Laws • This is John Gilmore • Sun employee #5, and co-founder of the EFF • Unsuccessfully sued the US Supreme Court to force them to demonstrate which law kept him from ﬂying anonymously

• I assumed that Apple would be pretty liberal in their curation of iTAS

• I assumed that Apple would be pretty liberal in their curation of iTAS • I was wrong

• I assumed that Apple would be pretty liberal in their curation of iTAS • I was wrong • Any guesses on the ﬁrst app I heard about being rejected?

“Pull my ﬁnger” was rejected for being indecent

Eventually, they decided to allow ﬂatulent expression.

Today, there are over 83 fart applications on iTAS. One of them hit #7 on the paid application list.

Apple has a long list of banned application concepts.

You can’t make anything similar to an existing Apple application. Sadly, the reverse doesn’t seem to apply to Apple.

No swearing.

No nudity or adult content.

No tethering (sharing 3G with your laptop)

No VoIP on 3G

One company had their critical update delayed because their features list said “more dragons”

“What dragons are you referring to? There is no evidence of dragons in your application.”

It turns out that there are so many apps rejected that there’s a deadpool for them. http://boredzo.org/killed-iphone-apps/

Apple was worried that this app, which “broke” the iPhone when touched, would confuse their customers. Golly.

The Lyrics app by Moop.me has been rejected 4 times.

Each time, an Apple auditor loads their app, searches for the word “fuck,” ﬁnds it in the 700k song database, and rejects their application.

Of course, 99% of those songs are available for sale on iTunes. Apple will not directly respond to requests for clariﬁcation.

Magic Bullets

The iPhone SDK allows the registration of custom protocol handlers which start helper applications.

To some degree, this allows a developer to introduce “impossible” features into the mix.

The most dramatic example is Alocola, which enables passing GPS coordinates to Safari web apps http://alocola.com/

There’s also several Twitter apps, and even an Authorize.net payment gateway processor.

Check out a list of custom protocol apps at: http://applookup.com/

Ch-ch-changes iPhone OS v3.0

• Native apps will be able to expose an interface to the new Spotlight functions

• Native apps will be able to expose an interface to the new Spotlight functions • Connect to Mail, Calendar, iPod

• Native apps will be able to expose an interface to the new Spotlight functions • Connect to Mail, Calendar, iPod • Safari remembers web login credentials

• Native apps will be able to expose an interface to the new Spotlight functions • Connect to Mail, Calendar, iPod • Safari remembers web login credentials • Peer-to-peer Bluetooth

• Native apps will be able to expose an interface to the new Spotlight functions • Connect to Mail, Calendar, iPod • Safari remembers web login credentials • Peer-to-peer Bluetooth • Push notiﬁcations

• External device control

• External device control • Embedded maps, turn-by-turn directions

• External device control • Embedded maps, turn-by-turn directions • Voice communication, audio recording

• External device control • Embedded maps, turn-by-turn directions • Voice communication, audio recording • Rumbling

• External device control • Embedded maps, turn-by-turn directions • Voice communication, audio recording • Rumbling • Access music library, Core Data API

None of this is what gets me excited, though.

Javascript iPhone OS v2.2: 8-22x faster than v1.0.1

Javascript iPhone OS v3.0: 3-10x faster than v2.2

Strong speculation that v3.0 will feature the native-code generating Squirrelﬁsh interpreter

The Future

Rhodes: An open source framework that lets you write a mobile app in Ruby, feed it through a processor, and output code to run on multiple platforms. http://github.com/rhomobile/rhodes

Canvas: The HTML5 canvas tag supported in every major browser except IE. It supports powerful vector drawing and shading... and with advances in Javascript speed, could pose a serious threat to Flash, which doesn’t work on the iPhone.

Tools • Best iPhone developer blog: MobileOrchard.com • Best free iPhone research and case study: theamazingiphone.com • Cool library to connect your apps to Rails: ObjectiveResource: iphoneonrails.com/

Thanks! I will be posting the URLs from this presentation on: rethink.unspace.ca pete@unspace.ca @peteforde

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Is that an iPhone in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

by Pete Forde on Apr 07, 2009

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Is that an iPhone in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me? Presentation Transcript