October 17, 2007
You Got Your Third Party Apps, Now Hush
I wasn’t one of the first “early adopters” of the iPhone: I waited until after the price cut. But I suppose I still qualify, given the curious stares and slew of questions whenever I use it in public.
For a while I had some third party apps on the iPhone, but I found I didn’t really use them much at all. There’s really only so much I want to do with my phone, and the included features pretty much had those things covered.
A little while after I bought the iPhone, Apple and Starbucks unveiled their new partnership. Walk into a Starbucks (right now only in New York and Seattle, other metropolitan areas soon), tap the iTunes button, and you get an additional menu button: Starbucks. With it, you can see what song is currently playing in the store, as well as the 10 or so recently played tracks, and purchase them from the iTunes Store.
I think this feature is really dandy. And I’ve never used it. Maybe one day I’ll hear something that, for 99 cents, I just can’t resist impulse-buying while getting an iced Americano. But really, it’s the concept that I like much more than this particular execution. This is just How Things Should Work.
Today, Apple announced that they would open up the iPhone to third party application developers via what’s known as an SDK (Software Development Kit) by February 2008. An SDK gives developers access to the back-end of an operating system so that they may produce native applications.
Ever since the iPhone’s introduction in June, people (well, mostly just the big-time geeks) have been screaming and crying for third party apps. Just as one group of hackers would develop a crack, Apple would introduce a software update that would kill it. The emphasis, they said, was on web-based applications, of which I currently use several. I agree the the web as a platform is really the way to go.
So now the people who just can’t resist messing with their stuff have what they wanted, which is great because now they will have something else to cry about.
Cries of monopoly? Please. Buy a different phone. Don’t like the product and the way it works? There are plenty others out there.
I think the problem is that consumers have such high expectations of Apple products that they expect them to be exactly what they want right out of the gate. What people should remember is that this is a brand-new product, really the first of its kind to hit the market. It’s a work in progress. Whether or not Apple rushed it out the door in an unfinished state (which they did) is irrelevant.
I’d like my microwave to automatically stir my food. I’d like my razor to shave me without my assistance. In fact, I’d like everything everywhere to be perfect. Not going to happen. But if you’ve got $400-600 to spend on an inessential toy, don’t bitch about what it doesn’t do. Like it or lump it, knuckleheads.
Now that the new car smell has worn off a bit, I recognize the limitations of the device. But you know what? It still does everything I want and need it to do, and I’m sure this is the case for the vast majority of buyers. I’m glad they’re opening it up to developers. I’ll be happy to ignore the 14 versions of Sudoku that will soon run natively on it.
Thankfully, I’m not alone: I have The Mackalope!
The Macalope didn’t buy his iPhone thinking about all the great apps he was going to install on it, only to find out later that it was locked down and then have to justify his continued support for the platform. No, you bought the iPhone knowing it was locked down and are now upset to find out, no, there will be no peanut butter on your chocolate, chocolate in your peanut butter.The Macalope’s just a little baffled by why (people) — after being told repeatedly that they would be given Hershey bars — keep expecting Reeses Peanut Butter cups to fall out of the wrapper.
Read the rest of what The Jackalope has to say about it. You’ll be glad you did.
