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"I'm not convinced games are really that important either, the case in point being Mac OS X users." Well, take a look what kind of apps take the top spots on A

"I'm not convinced games are really that important either, the case in point being Mac OS X users." Well, take a look what kind of apps take the top spots on AppStore. However the most amusing thing in this kind of discussion is a take on SDK. When Apple initially offered to develop apps using web technology it was greated with "booo". Now Palm says the same and it is greated with "Wow, cool". Go figure.

halo 17y ago
I believe Apple were perceived to almost dismissively offer remote web apps which require internet access as a replacement for local apps with access to APIs, and it quite obviously is not a very good substitute. On the other hand, Palm are offering their web development platform as a first-class platform where the applications look, act like, and feel like native applications, as well as providing full interfaces to local APIs. I don't think games are that important. The Sims sold 16 million copies, but no-one bought a PC simply to play The Sims. I think the same is true for phones - for the vast majority of people it's a nicety rather than a true selling point.
lallysingh 17y ago
There's so little you can really do with the iphone that you end up with games, which have little interaction with the system and with the overall user experience (outside of the time playing the game, of course). The difference between the Palm SDK and the iPhone web API is that they've extended the web apis to build regular palm apps -- the builtin apps are (afaik, mostly) built with the same APIs provided to developers. Also: 1. Palm knows PDAs. The iPhone's calendaring and contact management is toyish at best compared to what we had on the old PalmOS. 2. Palm also knows how to treat developers better. HN's full of complains by iPhone developers on the App Store process. Palm's had a strong developer community before, and they treated them (us -- I was one of them) well.

halo 17y ago

I believe Apple were perceived to almost dismissively offer remote web apps which require internet access as a replacement for local apps with access to APIs, and it quite obviously is not a very good substitute. On the other hand, Palm are offering their web development platform as a first-class platform where the applications look, act like, and feel like native applications, as well as providing full interfaces to local APIs. I don't think games are that important. The Sims sold 16 million copies, but no-one bought a PC simply to play The Sims. I think the same is true for phones - for the vast majority of people it's a nicety rather than a true selling point.

lallysingh 17y ago

There's so little you can really do with the iphone that you end up with games, which have little interaction with the system and with the overall user experience (outside of the time playing the game, of course). The difference between the Palm SDK and the iPhone web API is that they've extended the web apis to build regular palm apps -- the builtin apps are (afaik, mostly) built with the same APIs provided to developers. Also: 1. Palm knows PDAs. The iPhone's calendaring and contact management is toyish at best compared to what we had on the old PalmOS. 2. Palm also knows how to treat developers better. HN's full of complains by iPhone developers on the App Store process. Palm's had a strong developer community before, and they treated them (us -- I was one of them) well.