4 ms·

I would like to point out to people who say that Apple is being greedy: until they came out with their 30% deal it was normal for Phone companies to ban all sof

by sambeau 15y ago

I would like to point out to people who say that Apple is being greedy: until they came out with their 30% deal it was normal for Phone companies to ban all software from their phones except for their own. When phone companies did include outside developers software, deals of 90%+ were common (as they still are in the games' industry)

necubi 15y ago
This was never true on the two dominant smart phone platforms, Palm OS and Windows Mobile. Development on the former required only Codewarrior while the latter VS.Net, which became free. Neither Palm nor Microsoft ever required you to pay them money either to develop or release applications, nor did they require approval for those applications to run on devices. You're comparing Apple's smart phone ecosytem against other companies' dumb phone ecosystems. A more reasonable comparison against other smart phone platforms shows that Apple's is unusually restrictive.
- sambeau 15y ago
  When I owned a Palm, software was prohibitively expensive, hard-to-find, buggy and rarely did what it advertised.
- asmosoinio 15y ago
  Actually, virtually all dumb phones allow installation of Mobile Java applications (.jar), and most have no limits on the source of the applications (at least in Europe, I know of some limitations for US carriers and certain devices). Once you can send a link to the installation file to your phone, you are good to go.
wvenable 15y ago
To add to what necubi said, it wasn't true for Symbian either, so that covers all major smartphone platforms before the iPhone. This "bad all software for their phones" is an oft repeated falsehood that really needs to be stopped.
- sambeau 15y ago
  My last two phones before the iPhone were symbians and there was no independent software for either. My phone supplier (Orange) provided a few authorized buggy overpriced games but that was it.
  - wvenable 15y ago
    Symbian powers both "smartphones" and "dumbphones".
    - asmosoinio 15y ago
      Care to link to a Symbian "dumbphone"? I am wondering about the definitions you are using...
  - asmosoinio 15y ago
    Really? Had Orange removed the ability to install native Symbian (.sis) apps and Mobile Java (.jar) apps? Because if you would have a normal Symbian devices, there would be plenty of free software available. Not as easily as through AppStore (almost with the Ovi) but the platform is much more open than iPhone in that it allows installation of software from any source.
    - sambeau 15y ago
      How would I have got it on there? I'm a technical guy but I never worked any of that out. I managed to get images off via bluetooth but never managed to get anything onto it. My second 3G phone a Sony-Ericsson was slightly more successful (I managed to stick some MP3s on it). But that was it. Despite supposedly having email, video calling and internet both phones failed to do any of the three despite numerous attempts. I could get WAP but that was it (and typing a full url with the numeric keypad was a nightmare - it took about as long as the page took to render i.e. forever). I and a friend got Nokia 3G phones at the same time sat down to make our first video call - a momentous moment. Total failure. Not even a pretense at a picture. The Ericsson was a terrible MP3 player too. Really tricky to use. However it was a fantastic camera. I stand by my assertion that Apple changed phones forever when it introduced the iPhone. Everything worked and was usable. Then, when they introduced the App store this was the first time I was able to use a phone with 3rd party software despite numerous attempts.

by sambeau 15y ago

necubi 15y ago

This was never true on the two dominant smart phone platforms, Palm OS and Windows Mobile. Development on the former required only Codewarrior while the latter VS.Net, which became free. Neither Palm nor Microsoft ever required you to pay them money either to develop or release applications, nor did they require approval for those applications to run on devices. You're comparing Apple's smart phone ecosytem against other companies' dumb phone ecosystems. A more reasonable comparison against other smart phone platforms shows that Apple's is unusually restrictive.

sambeau 15y ago
When I owned a Palm, software was prohibitively expensive, hard-to-find, buggy and rarely did what it advertised.
asmosoinio 15y ago
Actually, virtually all dumb phones allow installation of Mobile Java applications (.jar), and most have no limits on the source of the applications (at least in Europe, I know of some limitations for US carriers and certain devices). Once you can send a link to the installation file to your phone, you are good to go.

wvenable 15y ago

To add to what necubi said, it wasn't true for Symbian either, so that covers all major smartphone platforms before the iPhone. This "bad all software for their phones" is an oft repeated falsehood that really needs to be stopped.

sambeau 15y ago
My last two phones before the iPhone were symbians and there was no independent software for either. My phone supplier (Orange) provided a few authorized buggy overpriced games but that was it.
- wvenable 15y ago
  Symbian powers both "smartphones" and "dumbphones".
  - asmosoinio 15y ago
    Care to link to a Symbian "dumbphone"? I am wondering about the definitions you are using...
- asmosoinio 15y ago
  Really? Had Orange removed the ability to install native Symbian (.sis) apps and Mobile Java (.jar) apps? Because if you would have a normal Symbian devices, there would be plenty of free software available. Not as easily as through AppStore (almost with the Ovi) but the platform is much more open than iPhone in that it allows installation of software from any source.
  - sambeau 15y ago
    How would I have got it on there? I'm a technical guy but I never worked any of that out. I managed to get images off via bluetooth but never managed to get anything onto it. My second 3G phone a Sony-Ericsson was slightly more successful (I managed to stick some MP3s on it). But that was it. Despite supposedly having email, video calling and internet both phones failed to do any of the three despite numerous attempts. I could get WAP but that was it (and typing a full url with the numeric keypad was a nightmare - it took about as long as the page took to render i.e. forever). I and a friend got Nokia 3G phones at the same time sat down to make our first video call - a momentous moment. Total failure. Not even a pretense at a picture. The Ericsson was a terrible MP3 player too. Really tricky to use. However it was a fantastic camera. I stand by my assertion that Apple changed phones forever when it introduced the iPhone. Everything worked and was usable. Then, when they introduced the App store this was the first time I was able to use a phone with 3rd party software despite numerous attempts.