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I don't know what "truly web-based OS" means exactly, but Jobs was very resistant to third-party apps at first. "Initially, third-party native applications wer

I don't know what "truly web-based OS" means exactly, but Jobs was very resistant to third-party apps at first. "Initially, third-party native applications were not supported. Jobs' reasoning was that developers could build web applications through the Safari web browser that 'would behave like native apps on the iPhone'" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS#History

toyg 4y ago
Jobs' priority was to cut off the telcos. Carriers used to be in charge of phone OSes, preloading a lot of clunky bullshit that typically ruined the experience. He wanted to avoid that arrangement, because it would mean relinquishing control - commercial anathema for him. So he went with a setup where telcos couldn't screw up things even if they tried to: web-apps couldn't mess with the overall system stability. Once it became clear the phone was desirable enough for telcos to leave it alone, he pivoted to what would give him even more control.
- Melatonic 4y ago
  This seems like the most likely scenariou
- giantrobot 4y ago
  Not really. The iPhone just barely shipped on time. It was a death march development up to FCS (first customer ship). Most of what were eventually released as public APIs didn't even exist in iOS 1.0. Hell most of the first party apps on the phone just barely ran. Web apps were the only practical way to get third party code running reliably on iOS 1.0. Even after the 1.0 release Apple went back into death march development mode to polish up a usable SDK. Even that first SDK had a tiny surface area compared all the frameworks available on the OS. It wasn't until iOS 3 that the SDK felt fully functional and not polished until iOS 4. Web apps were a stopgap. Early iOS was just barely above an advanced demo in terms of quality and functionality. A lot of frameworks didn't even have stable APIs to release for third party developers.
- misnome 4y ago
  > because it would mean relinquishing control - commercial anathema for him Also, like, the forced carrier apps on every generic phone before the iPhone either ruined or crippled the experience of using the phone, locking you into their shitty ad-laden applications or forcing you through their terrible browsers and web portals. To me, and several people I knew at the time - It was one of the big appeals of the iPhone that Apple had drawn a hard line at not allowing any of this. It was 100% actually better for the consumer.

toyg 4y ago

Jobs' priority was to cut off the telcos. Carriers used to be in charge of phone OSes, preloading a lot of clunky bullshit that typically ruined the experience. He wanted to avoid that arrangement, because it would mean relinquishing control - commercial anathema for him. So he went with a setup where telcos couldn't screw up things even if they tried to: web-apps couldn't mess with the overall system stability. Once it became clear the phone was desirable enough for telcos to leave it alone, he pivoted to what would give him even more control.

Melatonic 4y ago
This seems like the most likely scenariou
giantrobot 4y ago
Not really. The iPhone just barely shipped on time. It was a death march development up to FCS (first customer ship). Most of what were eventually released as public APIs didn't even exist in iOS 1.0. Hell most of the first party apps on the phone just barely ran. Web apps were the only practical way to get third party code running reliably on iOS 1.0. Even after the 1.0 release Apple went back into death march development mode to polish up a usable SDK. Even that first SDK had a tiny surface area compared all the frameworks available on the OS. It wasn't until iOS 3 that the SDK felt fully functional and not polished until iOS 4. Web apps were a stopgap. Early iOS was just barely above an advanced demo in terms of quality and functionality. A lot of frameworks didn't even have stable APIs to release for third party developers.
misnome 4y ago
> because it would mean relinquishing control - commercial anathema for him Also, like, the forced carrier apps on every generic phone before the iPhone either ruined or crippled the experience of using the phone, locking you into their shitty ad-laden applications or forcing you through their terrible browsers and web portals. To me, and several people I knew at the time - It was one of the big appeals of the iPhone that Apple had drawn a hard line at not allowing any of this. It was 100% actually better for the consumer.