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That's nonsense. When the iPhone launched it did so without a native app SDK, which was by far the biggest criticism leveled against it from the tech audience.

by sho_hn 10y ago

That's nonsense. When the iPhone launched it did so without a native app SDK, which was by far the biggest criticism leveled against it from the tech audience. They fixed it, but it wasn't day-one. And didn't the Apple TV launch without an app SDK initially, too? Meanwhile gaming consoles are obviously not open platforms, but the vendors /do/ usually entertain developer relations from day one - I can't recall any launches with only first-party games. Considering you can't deploy to iOS without Apple's approval, it's really not any more open than gaming consoles. The App Store and its approval process just operate at a larger scale, they're not conceptually more welcoming.

hoodoof 10y ago
OK not literally day one but developer support for iPhone was obviously a key early priority, as opposed to Microsoft and Nintendo which seem(ed) unconvinced that anyone except appointed developers should be allowed to write code for their platforms. True that the Apple TV thing was not programamable till recently but I gotta say there's alot wrong with the AppleTV - it seems to be pretty blah and nothing and found no real definitive identity - a wasted opportunity on Apple's part.
- josh2600 10y ago
  It was Web Apps only originally and that was the battle call from Apple. It wasn't until GeoHot (and others) rooted the phone and we got app stores like Cydia that Apple really started to care. It was with the launch of the iPhone 3G when they came out with the SDK + App Store and it was a really well executed coup. Do you know how you got software on your phone before the iPhone? Getjar or side-loading (with a proprietary cable almost no one had with apps that would sometimes hard break your phone).
  - hoodoof 10y ago
    Is there anything published that shows the true history of Apple's intentions for developer support and on the iPhoine and when in time?
    - tjl 10y ago
      The best source I know of on early iPhone is the Nitin Ganatra episodes of the Debug Podcast [0]. He was in charge of the early iOS apps from before the iPhone shipped so he talked about those days. Those podcasts and the ones he did with Don Melton (former head of Safari team at Apple) are all excellent for getting insight into behind the scenes at Apple. [0] http://www.imore.com/debug http://www.imore.com/debug
    - nsxwolf 10y ago
      Jailbreakers like to take credit but the App Store launched so relatively soon after the iPhone it's hard to believe it wasn't in the works from the beginning. A year to create all that tooling and polishing the APIs and building the store infrastructure seems on the mark.
    - chc 10y ago
      It's hard to pinpoint exactly when Apple changed their minds, but Jobs was very clear in the original iPhone keynote that the Web was the intended development platform for the iPhone and that not having an SDK was a strength — no hints about a native SDK in the near future or anything. Here's a good article showing Apple's original stance, with additional information from the Steve Jobs biography: http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/21/jobs-original-vision-for-the-iphone-no-third-party-native-apps/ http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/21/jobs-original-vision-for-the-i...
      - geon 10y ago
        I believe they had the appstore and sdk planned all along, but couldn't get it ready in time. Rather than saying, "we will have an sdk too, sometime", they played it off as intentional, and continued working on it silently. There is just no way they built it all in the single year from the release of the iphone.
        chc 10y ago
        Well, yeah, nobody thinks they built it all in a single year. The SDK largely just publicized a subset of Apple's existing private APIs that they used to make their own apps. Foundation, UIKit, etc. — that stuff was already there, but you couldn't use it without jailbreaking your phone. Here's an article running down all the stuff that was included with the original iPhone, from almost a year before the SDK was announced: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2007/07/16/iphone-os-x-architecture-cocoa-frameworks-and-mobile-mac-apps-2/ http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2007/07/16/iphone-os-x-archite...
  - peteri 10y ago
    The biggest kickers for Apple were: a) Sensible means of payment, no need to setup credit card processing, do deals with carriers etc for developers. Oh and no carrier lockdown on installing applications. b) Macs going x86 based so you could develop for Windows / Linux and Apple all on the one box. Basically Apple managed to make it possible for small dev shops to work on the iPhone without spending huge amounts of cash AND get money from consumers.
cthulha 10y ago
My understanding was that the SDK at release 1.0 would have been terrible, and an expensive maintenance burden. The internal teams rushed hack jobs just to get the first iPhone out the door, there was a _lot_ of internal bugs and half-baked APIs. So if you're arguing Apple is hostile to developers because they didn't have an SDK on launch day, then you haven't thought through what iterative development at very large scale actually requires. Giving developers access to tools that aren't ready isn't the best criteria.
- wvenable 10y ago
  I don't really disagree with your point but literally every other mobile and smartphone platform that existed before the iPhone was released with an SDK at 1.0.
- altstar 10y ago
  And you have not read the comment he/she is replying to: Meanwhile, Apple welcomes developers from day one and there are so many applications developed that it's hard to get user attention amongst the app store noise.
  - hoodoof 10y ago
    Yes, the original commenter was taking issue on the literal point of whether or not there was an SDK on day one as stated in the top level comment, not with the (somewhat obvious) broader point that Apple enthusiastically embraced third party developers for iPhone. But that's HN for you - we are all a bunch of pedants who love to point and yell when something is incorrect - I include myself.
    - EGreg 10y ago
      Not all of us. Some of us are not. Well, I may do it but I don't love it. So you're wrong!
- MAGZine 10y ago
  anyone who has launched titles on a gaming-platform-to-be will be able to tell you about half-baked APIs. :-) A buggy, half-baked API is better than no API at all, though.
paublyrne 10y ago
I can't recall any launches with only first-party games. The N64 launched with only Nintendo titles, but it launched with only 2 titles, and was in some ways a fiasco. Some third party developers had got cold feet during the pre launch period and jumped ship to Sony.
- cableshaft 10y ago
  Thankfully for them, one of those two titles (Mario 64) was mindblowing for the time (and still fun today), and it was worth getting the console just for that alone. I don't know if new consoles could get away with that anymore though, since there's so many other options out there for games nowadays.

by sho_hn 10y ago

hoodoof 10y ago

OK not literally day one but developer support for iPhone was obviously a key early priority, as opposed to Microsoft and Nintendo which seem(ed) unconvinced that anyone except appointed developers should be allowed to write code for their platforms. True that the Apple TV thing was not programamable till recently but I gotta say there's alot wrong with the AppleTV - it seems to be pretty blah and nothing and found no real definitive identity - a wasted opportunity on Apple's part.

josh2600 10y ago
It was Web Apps only originally and that was the battle call from Apple. It wasn't until GeoHot (and others) rooted the phone and we got app stores like Cydia that Apple really started to care. It was with the launch of the iPhone 3G when they came out with the SDK + App Store and it was a really well executed coup. Do you know how you got software on your phone before the iPhone? Getjar or side-loading (with a proprietary cable almost no one had with apps that would sometimes hard break your phone).
- hoodoof 10y ago
  Is there anything published that shows the true history of Apple's intentions for developer support and on the iPhoine and when in time?
  - tjl 10y ago
    The best source I know of on early iPhone is the Nitin Ganatra episodes of the Debug Podcast [0]. He was in charge of the early iOS apps from before the iPhone shipped so he talked about those days. Those podcasts and the ones he did with Don Melton (former head of Safari team at Apple) are all excellent for getting insight into behind the scenes at Apple. [0] http://www.imore.com/debug http://www.imore.com/debug
  - nsxwolf 10y ago
    Jailbreakers like to take credit but the App Store launched so relatively soon after the iPhone it's hard to believe it wasn't in the works from the beginning. A year to create all that tooling and polishing the APIs and building the store infrastructure seems on the mark.
  - chc 10y ago
    It's hard to pinpoint exactly when Apple changed their minds, but Jobs was very clear in the original iPhone keynote that the Web was the intended development platform for the iPhone and that not having an SDK was a strength — no hints about a native SDK in the near future or anything. Here's a good article showing Apple's original stance, with additional information from the Steve Jobs biography: http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/21/jobs-original-vision-for-the-iphone-no-third-party-native-apps/ http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/21/jobs-original-vision-for-the-i...
    - geon 10y ago
      I believe they had the appstore and sdk planned all along, but couldn't get it ready in time. Rather than saying, "we will have an sdk too, sometime", they played it off as intentional, and continued working on it silently. There is just no way they built it all in the single year from the release of the iphone.
      - chc 10y ago
        Well, yeah, nobody thinks they built it all in a single year. The SDK largely just publicized a subset of Apple's existing private APIs that they used to make their own apps. Foundation, UIKit, etc. — that stuff was already there, but you couldn't use it without jailbreaking your phone. Here's an article running down all the stuff that was included with the original iPhone, from almost a year before the SDK was announced: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2007/07/16/iphone-os-x-architecture-cocoa-frameworks-and-mobile-mac-apps-2/ http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2007/07/16/iphone-os-x-archite...
- peteri 10y ago
  The biggest kickers for Apple were: a) Sensible means of payment, no need to setup credit card processing, do deals with carriers etc for developers. Oh and no carrier lockdown on installing applications. b) Macs going x86 based so you could develop for Windows / Linux and Apple all on the one box. Basically Apple managed to make it possible for small dev shops to work on the iPhone without spending huge amounts of cash AND get money from consumers.

cthulha 10y ago

My understanding was that the SDK at release 1.0 would have been terrible, and an expensive maintenance burden. The internal teams rushed hack jobs just to get the first iPhone out the door, there was a _lot_ of internal bugs and half-baked APIs. So if you're arguing Apple is hostile to developers because they didn't have an SDK on launch day, then you haven't thought through what iterative development at very large scale actually requires. Giving developers access to tools that aren't ready isn't the best criteria.

wvenable 10y ago
I don't really disagree with your point but literally every other mobile and smartphone platform that existed before the iPhone was released with an SDK at 1.0.
altstar 10y ago
And you have not read the comment he/she is replying to: Meanwhile, Apple welcomes developers from day one and there are so many applications developed that it's hard to get user attention amongst the app store noise.
- hoodoof 10y ago
  Yes, the original commenter was taking issue on the literal point of whether or not there was an SDK on day one as stated in the top level comment, not with the (somewhat obvious) broader point that Apple enthusiastically embraced third party developers for iPhone. But that's HN for you - we are all a bunch of pedants who love to point and yell when something is incorrect - I include myself.
  - EGreg 10y ago
    Not all of us. Some of us are not. Well, I may do it but I don't love it. So you're wrong!
MAGZine 10y ago
anyone who has launched titles on a gaming-platform-to-be will be able to tell you about half-baked APIs. :-) A buggy, half-baked API is better than no API at all, though.

paublyrne 10y ago

I can't recall any launches with only first-party games. The N64 launched with only Nintendo titles, but it launched with only 2 titles, and was in some ways a fiasco. Some third party developers had got cold feet during the pre launch period and jumped ship to Sony.

cableshaft 10y ago
Thankfully for them, one of those two titles (Mario 64) was mindblowing for the time (and still fun today), and it was worth getting the console just for that alone. I don't know if new consoles could get away with that anymore though, since there's so many other options out there for games nowadays.