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Good. However, they shouldn't get undeserved praise for correcting something that was a bad decision in the first place and was undermining their own platform.

by halo 18y ago

axod 18y ago
Some people are never happy.
- josefresco 18y ago
  He has a point, it's like gas prices. They jack them up in the summer and then come fall the small decreases seem like a screaming deal. Rinse, repeat each year. Apple is just doing this with control over their mobile OS, albeit in a much shorter time frame.
  - axod 18y ago
    Do you think they made a lot of money by having an NDA in place? I'd say they just tried to keep control of as much as possible, as any company would, then relented when the whining from developers became too much to take.
    - unalone 18y ago
      How would having an NDA make Apple money? I wholly agree with you.
    - ajross 18y ago
      Not "any company" certainly. Microsoft doesn't require an NDA for their mobile platform's SDK. Symbian doesn't require an NDA for their mobile platform's SDK. Palm doesn't require an NDA for their mobile platform's SDK. Nokia doesn't require an NDA for their mobile platforms' SDK. And, finally and most importantly, Google doesn't require an NDA for access to their mobile platform's SDK. So basically, Apple was out alone here. No one else is remotely as "evil" in this aspect. It's OK that you like the platform, there's lots to recommend it. But don't sugarcoat things. Apple were being repressive and obnoxious, and only relented because they were forced to by a competing platform.
      - axod 18y ago
        Is someone outselling the iPhone I'm not aware of? Are you from some weird other dimension? When you lead a market, you get to set the rules somewhat.
        ks 18y ago
        iPhone is not a leader in the smartphone market: Numbers from: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/09/09/gartner_q22008_smartphone/ http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/09/09/gartner_q22008_smart... Q2 2008: ------------------------ Symbian: 57.1% RIM: 17.4% Windows Mobile: 12.0% Linux: 7.3% (!) iPhone: 2.8% The new 3G iPhone will probably increase the market share significantly this quarter, but it still has a long way to go. But it is impressive that the iPhone alone has that kind of market share. If you compare model for model, the market share for iPhone would look much better
        comatose_kid 18y ago
        I'm more interested in the derivative - how fast are each of these growing?
        henning 18y ago
        Furthermore, the claim behind developing for the Mac platform is the average Mac user is far more likely to want to spend money on extra little utilities that marginally improve their experience. Which is why it's allegedly viable to be a Mac developer when their market share is a fraction of Windows'.
        acgourley 18y ago
        But will they txt hotrimz to 28845 now for a FREE* wallpaper?
        axod 18y ago
        NB: Outselling != market share.
  - briancooley 18y ago
    >They jack them up in the summer and then come fall the small decreases seem like a screaming deal. Who is they? There is a supply and demand issue with summer gasoline that tends to force prices up. I don't think Apple can claim the same thing.
    - ajkirwin 18y ago
      OPEC. They cut production if the price falls too much.
      - briancooley 18y ago
        That's the price of oil, not the price of gasoline. While increasing oil prices will cause gasoline prices to rise, the effect in question - that gasoline prices in the US historically go up in the spring and summer - is related to the gasoline supply tightening up because of the switch from winter to summer gasoline specifications and increasing demand because of summer vacations, not because of a reduction in the crude oil supply. OPEC production increased about 3% from January to August this year. I'm getting too far off topic, I guess.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
lallysingh 18y ago
Yeah, but bad decisions are human. Being able to say you were wrong and correcting the problem is praiseworthy in my book.
- scott_s 18y ago
  They corrected the problem, but they didn't actually say they made a mistake.
  - DougBTX 18y ago
    However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software. They've acknowledged that it was causing a problem for their developers, so to the extent that they want to help out their developers, that counts as admitting a mistake. Though yes, they do mention their other priorities, so technically it isn't a full admission.
jrockway 18y ago
Agreed. I think I am going to announce that I have stopped eating babies and then enjoy all the good publicity. Apple are the marketing masters, however, and this is just one more way to market the iPhone to developers. It's apparently working, judging from the 99 upmods so far.

Good. However, they shouldn't get undeserved praise for correcting something that was a bad decision in the first place and was undermining their own platform.

by halo 18y ago

Good. However, they shouldn't get undeserved praise for correcting something that was a bad decision in the first place and was undermining their own platform.

axod 18y ago

Some people are never happy.

josefresco 18y ago
He has a point, it's like gas prices. They jack them up in the summer and then come fall the small decreases seem like a screaming deal. Rinse, repeat each year. Apple is just doing this with control over their mobile OS, albeit in a much shorter time frame.
- axod 18y ago
  Do you think they made a lot of money by having an NDA in place? I'd say they just tried to keep control of as much as possible, as any company would, then relented when the whining from developers became too much to take.
  - unalone 18y ago
    How would having an NDA make Apple money? I wholly agree with you.
  - ajross 18y ago
    Not "any company" certainly. Microsoft doesn't require an NDA for their mobile platform's SDK. Symbian doesn't require an NDA for their mobile platform's SDK. Palm doesn't require an NDA for their mobile platform's SDK. Nokia doesn't require an NDA for their mobile platforms' SDK. And, finally and most importantly, Google doesn't require an NDA for access to their mobile platform's SDK. So basically, Apple was out alone here. No one else is remotely as "evil" in this aspect. It's OK that you like the platform, there's lots to recommend it. But don't sugarcoat things. Apple were being repressive and obnoxious, and only relented because they were forced to by a competing platform.
    - axod 18y ago
      Is someone outselling the iPhone I'm not aware of? Are you from some weird other dimension? When you lead a market, you get to set the rules somewhat.
      - ks 18y ago
        iPhone is not a leader in the smartphone market: Numbers from: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/09/09/gartner_q22008_smartphone/ http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/09/09/gartner_q22008_smart... Q2 2008: ------------------------ Symbian: 57.1% RIM: 17.4% Windows Mobile: 12.0% Linux: 7.3% (!) iPhone: 2.8% The new 3G iPhone will probably increase the market share significantly this quarter, but it still has a long way to go. But it is impressive that the iPhone alone has that kind of market share. If you compare model for model, the market share for iPhone would look much better
        comatose_kid 18y ago
        I'm more interested in the derivative - how fast are each of these growing?
        henning 18y ago
        Furthermore, the claim behind developing for the Mac platform is the average Mac user is far more likely to want to spend money on extra little utilities that marginally improve their experience. Which is why it's allegedly viable to be a Mac developer when their market share is a fraction of Windows'.
        acgourley 18y ago
        But will they txt hotrimz to 28845 now for a FREE* wallpaper?
      - axod 18y ago
        NB: Outselling != market share.
- briancooley 18y ago
  >They jack them up in the summer and then come fall the small decreases seem like a screaming deal. Who is they? There is a supply and demand issue with summer gasoline that tends to force prices up. I don't think Apple can claim the same thing.
  - ajkirwin 18y ago
    OPEC. They cut production if the price falls too much.
    - briancooley 18y ago
      That's the price of oil, not the price of gasoline. While increasing oil prices will cause gasoline prices to rise, the effect in question - that gasoline prices in the US historically go up in the spring and summer - is related to the gasoline supply tightening up because of the switch from winter to summer gasoline specifications and increasing demand because of summer vacations, not because of a reduction in the crude oil supply. OPEC production increased about 3% from January to August this year. I'm getting too far off topic, I guess.
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]

lallysingh 18y ago

Yeah, but bad decisions are human. Being able to say you were wrong and correcting the problem is praiseworthy in my book.

scott_s 18y ago
They corrected the problem, but they didn't actually say they made a mistake.
- DougBTX 18y ago
  However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software. They've acknowledged that it was causing a problem for their developers, so to the extent that they want to help out their developers, that counts as admitting a mistake. Though yes, they do mention their other priorities, so technically it isn't a full admission.

jrockway 18y ago

Agreed. I think I am going to announce that I have stopped eating babies and then enjoy all the good publicity. Apple are the marketing masters, however, and this is just one more way to market the iPhone to developers. It's apparently working, judging from the 99 upmods so far.