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I'd like to hear the thoughts on this of people who are arguing with me in another thread that "Apple planned for web apps to be the only apps for the iPhone un

I'd like to hear the thoughts on this of people who are arguing with me in another thread that "Apple planned for web apps to be the only apps for the iPhone until they just happened to come up with the idea for the store full of native apps". Honestly, if you believe that Apple ever planned for iPhone to be web only you've got to buy this bridge from me. No kidding. Apple used the "web only apps" angle as a stopgap until their SDK was ready. Then they did everything they could to ensure that web apps ran like crap without making it too obvious.

Uehreka 5y ago
Sure thing. Apple told developers that webapps were the solution. They didn’t give any public indication that this would change. Now, one could argue that this was just cover while they got the native SDK ready, but that Bertrand Serlet email from the other thread was the point at which they even officially decided to have a native SDK at all (months after telling devs to write webapps). I think the real issue is with the phrase “Apple planned”, because Apple is not one person, and the people disagree on “the plan”. We mythologize them sometimes as an all-planning “the Vatican thinks in centuries” kind of organization. But as emails like that one and others show, there are often legitimate arguments within Apple. In this case, some folks[0]were arguing that native apps would be too much of a security nightmare to be worth it, and that anything that needed to be native could just be built by Apple themselves. So in conclusion: “Apple” planned nothing, some people at Apple had clear plans to push through a native SDK from day zero, and some people at Apple spent months being deadset that that would never happen. [0] I’m too lazy to look up these sources right now, check out Melton and Ganatra’s multi-part interview on the Debug podcast.
- wayneftw 5y ago
  Nobody, especially not Apple, decides something like that in one email or even a single conversation. Also this is the company that goes to great pains to hide what everybody can see about their plans. Keep that in mind. Obviously, This is something that has been discussed over and over and over since they started planning the iPhone. I've watched Apple work, they don't hash out what their products are going to do through emails. Sorry, but you're wrong. The idea had clearly occurred to them way before any of these emails that you're referencing.
  - Grustaf 5y ago
    The point is not that the email came up with the idea and they decided it on the spot. But the email show that there was an open discussion, there was a point where they weren't sure.
vimy 5y ago
It really seems that was the original plan. An email from the Apple vs Epic trial where Steve Jobs gives the go ahead for the app store in October 2007. They had to rush to get the sdk done in three months. https://twitter.com/TechEmails/status/1400270458608664577 https://twitter.com/TechEmails/status/1400270458608664577
- wayneftw 5y ago
  No it doesn't. Not even a little bit. That's a go ahead email. That's not an email showing the conception of the idea. We already had app stores on phones before this. You think they didn't come up with the idea until that email? It's perhaps the most obvious idea in the world. Sorry, y'all are just wrong. This email is evidence that its all been discussed many times before the "go ahead".
  - Grustaf 5y ago
    The iPod never had an app store, an Apple are known to prefer to be in control of the experience. How can you be so sure they were planning an app store all along?

Uehreka 5y ago

Sure thing. Apple told developers that webapps were the solution. They didn’t give any public indication that this would change. Now, one could argue that this was just cover while they got the native SDK ready, but that Bertrand Serlet email from the other thread was the point at which they even officially decided to have a native SDK at all (months after telling devs to write webapps). I think the real issue is with the phrase “Apple planned”, because Apple is not one person, and the people disagree on “the plan”. We mythologize them sometimes as an all-planning “the Vatican thinks in centuries” kind of organization. But as emails like that one and others show, there are often legitimate arguments within Apple. In this case, some folks[0]were arguing that native apps would be too much of a security nightmare to be worth it, and that anything that needed to be native could just be built by Apple themselves. So in conclusion: “Apple” planned nothing, some people at Apple had clear plans to push through a native SDK from day zero, and some people at Apple spent months being deadset that that would never happen. [0] I’m too lazy to look up these sources right now, check out Melton and Ganatra’s multi-part interview on the Debug podcast.

wayneftw 5y ago
Nobody, especially not Apple, decides something like that in one email or even a single conversation. Also this is the company that goes to great pains to hide what everybody can see about their plans. Keep that in mind. Obviously, This is something that has been discussed over and over and over since they started planning the iPhone. I've watched Apple work, they don't hash out what their products are going to do through emails. Sorry, but you're wrong. The idea had clearly occurred to them way before any of these emails that you're referencing.
- Grustaf 5y ago
  The point is not that the email came up with the idea and they decided it on the spot. But the email show that there was an open discussion, there was a point where they weren't sure.

vimy 5y ago

It really seems that was the original plan. An email from the Apple vs Epic trial where Steve Jobs gives the go ahead for the app store in October 2007. They had to rush to get the sdk done in three months. https://twitter.com/TechEmails/status/1400270458608664577 https://twitter.com/TechEmails/status/1400270458608664577

wayneftw 5y ago
No it doesn't. Not even a little bit. That's a go ahead email. That's not an email showing the conception of the idea. We already had app stores on phones before this. You think they didn't come up with the idea until that email? It's perhaps the most obvious idea in the world. Sorry, y'all are just wrong. This email is evidence that its all been discussed many times before the "go ahead".
- Grustaf 5y ago
  The iPod never had an app store, an Apple are known to prefer to be in control of the experience. How can you be so sure they were planning an app store all along?