Apple Has Signed Up 200,000 developers For iPhone

Apple has revealed that over 200,000 iPhone developers have downloaded Software Development Kit (SDk) so far. Apple also announced that in mid-March, the iPhone SDK had been downloaded 100,000 times. According to Apple CFO Oppenheimer Apple is signing up more developers each week.

Oppenheimer called the response to the SDK "tremendous" and said that interest in developing enterprise applications for the iPhone is also going well. More than 400 higher educations are now creating applications for the iPhone, and more than one-third of Fortune 500 companies are actively creating software for the iPhone as well.

Apple plans to deliver a free update to the software that runs the iPhone -called iPhone 2.0 in late June. That update will introduce the App Store, a new feature that will enable iPhone users to purchase, download and install third-party application software for the device. Apple also plans to release a similar update to the iPod touch delivered for a nominal fee that will enable iPod touch users to access the App Store as well.

Apple has sold 1.7 million iPhones in the quarter and is now selling phones in Austria and Ireland. Apple's COO, Tim Cook, reiterated to analysts who questioned him after Oppenheimer's preamble that Apple is on track to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of the year.

References:

http://www.macworld.com/article/133146/2008/04/iphonedevs.html

iPhone To Become A Great Tool For Doctors

Arrival of the SDK is already connected with a lot of new events about iPhone. Here is another novelty - iPhone may become a great tool even for doctors.

“If you could use the gesture-based way of manipulating images on the iPhone and actually manipulate a stack of X-rays or CT scans, that would be a huge selling point,” - says Adam Flanders, director of informatics at Thomas Jefferson University.

The reason why mobiles couldn’t handle high-res images before is they had lack of processing and memory power. But iPhone is different. With its powerful ARM processor and 8 GB/16 GB of memory it’s well suited for such tasks. And the iPhone's new business-friendly security features may ease privacy fears, physicians say, and could even turn the device into an indispensable medical tool if hospitals OK the device.

“The real beauty of the iPhone is that it offers a richer 3-D experience and more memory,” says Michelle Snyder, vice president of marketing and subscription services at Epocrates.

Tech-savvy doctors have been speculating about the iPhone's medical potential long before Apple shipped its first unit. But the lack of native application support has meant that, up to now, all iPhone applications had to work through the phone's Safari web browser. That's a nonstarter for most medical applications because it demands constant connectivity (either via WiFi or an AT&T cellular data network) and prevents application developers from using the device's full processing power.

The only problem of this novelty is its privacy. And here comes a question: Can hospitals guarantee patient privacy when data is being stored or accessed on iPhones? And can the popular handset stand up to the rigorous demands of a busy hospital environment?

P.S We will see it when the new version 2.0 of the iPhone's firmware becomes available, this June.

References:

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/news/2008/03/iphone_doctors

Lotus Notes E-Mail for iPhone 2.0 By IBM

IBM is working on Lotus Notes e-mail application for iPhone 2.0, as IBM spokesman Mike Azzi announced. But there are some details that are not revealed yet.

There are 140 million Lotus Notes and Domino users worldwide, according to IBM, and it would be very wise for both Apple and IBM to release it faster. So far Microsoft Exchange is number one platform.

Lotus Notes developers would build a Notes e-mail application for the next-generation iPhone by using Apple's SDK announced last week and would distribute it over Apple's new AppStore. AppStore allows developers to wirelessly deliver their applications to iPhone and iPod Touch users.

Apple plans to allow developers to charge whatever they want and to allow the developers to keep 70% of the revenues, while Apple keeps the other 30% to cover the cost of running AppStore.

Apple Inc. officials would not comment on Notes for the iPhone either, but released a statement saying that 100,000 developers had downloaded the beta SDK (software development kit) for the iPhone in the first four days since its release. Several developers are named, but there is no mention of Lotus Notes.

Reference:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,143440-pg,1/article.html

Good Luck Developers!

I wish I would have been in Cupertino, California at Apple's headquarters for the company's announcement of its iPhone software development kit. Many people were gathered inside Apple's Town Hall auditorium to hear how Apple plans to handle third-party application development for the iPhone and to learn about new business-friendly features.

Steve Jobs (co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Apple Inc), Phil Schiller (senior vice president of Apple Inc) and Scott Forstall (Vice President of iPhone Software at Apple Inc) were speaking and performing iPhones new abilities in the near future. The leading topics were iPhone software road map, the companies that have inquired about working with the iPhone, mentioning Genentech, Great e-mail integration, calendars, contacts, and the global address lists of corporations--having that technology instantly accessible and pushed to the device, security policies, like VPNs and remote wiping of a stolen iPhone, and configuration help.
"I'm really excited to be the one to tell you today that we're doing all these things in the next release of the iPhone software," said Schiller.
He also announces that Apple has licensed the Microsoft ActiveSync protocol, which will make it much easier to do push e-mail and contacts with Exchange servers. That means we'll soon get push e-mail, calendaring, contacts, and a global contacts list, as well as the remote wipe security feature. The iPhone's Mail application will have this functionality. We won't have to have a new user interface for e-mail and calendars. This will ship with every iPhone.

Have you heard about Cocoa Touch? Apple built unique multitouch controls, and also needed to program a way to access the accelerometer. Developers will have access to the accelerometer. That’s the best news for game developers. And it will be easy to work in it for everybody who knows how to work with Mac OS X. That works here too, giving developers tools to write and manage code developed for the iPhone. It seems that iPhone development will be very familiar to anyone who has developed applications for the Mac.

“You can record a test of the application on your Mac, allowing you to reproduce application behavior to make sure it works. This took Apple two weeks, and less than 10,000 lines of code,” Forstall says.

Some developers like Salesforce.com, Epocrates-Glenn Keighley, Sega-Ethan Einhorn showed off what they've created, but also showed the will to cooperate with iPhone.
Developers want to get their applications in front of every iPhone user, Jobs says. The App Store is built into the iPhone, so you can search applications by popularity, title, or a genre of application, sort of like the Wi-Fi Music Store. The applications are wirelessly downloaded to the iPhone over either EDGE or Wi-Fi.

If you want to be a develop, go ahead! You’ll just need to Download the iPhone SDK for free. There's also going to be an iPhone developer program, which allows you to test your code, get tech support, and distribute your applications. You are paying $99 for that. But, then you can pick the price of your application. The developer gets 70 percent of the revenue off the top. Apple gets 30 percent. No credit card, hosting, or marketing fees. The revenues are paid monthly, and Jobs calls it "the best deal going." There is no charge to the developer if you want to make a free application.

References:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/23500721
http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9886460-37.html?tag=nefd.lede

Changewave Report On iPhone Satisfaction Level In Corporate World

Changewave did yet another survey on iPhones popularity. This time they were interested not in the regular consumers but in corporate users and once again the absolute winner is Research In Motion’s (RIM) Blackberry.

In fact 73% of responders used Blackberry.

However what’s interesting is customer satisfaction. While iPhone has around 5% of market share in corporate world, its satisfaction level is 59%. This means that so much people are `very satisfied~ with their device. RIM ranks second with 47% followed by Nokia with 40%.

Apples market share in corporate world won’t be an easy one, but there are good news. Firstly iPhone is already number two Smartphone in planned purchases. And secondly upcoming SDK might bring some apps which will make iPhone more usable in the corporate world.

Looking ahead to the 2nd Quarter, RIM (77%) is the dominant leader in planned corporate smart phone buying - having jumped 3-pts since the previous survey in November. Apple (11%) is second, down 3-pts from its previous high.

The other manufacturers are also down vs. market-leading RIM.

Palm (8%), Motorola (7%) and Samsung (4%) have each experienced a 2-pt decline in terms of planned purchases, with each company registering its lowest level of the past year.

P.S. Let’s see which manufacturer would be the winner for the second Changewave survey.

References:

http://blogs.computerworld.com/changewave_iphone_enterprise_business_blackberry_rim
_symbian_nokia_sony_motorola_palm_treo

Open up, open up ... iPhone

Yes open up iPhone and not Nescafe. Finally, it is becoming reality. As Steve Jobs has announced, Apple will be providing SDK for iPhone in February. Why it takes so long is a valid question. However, better late than never.

It will be amazing to see third party applications pouring in for iPhone. Believe me, with all those wild developers out there, iPhone will do miracles shortly. However, this will heavily depend on Apple. I believe Apple has not finally decided which approach to take in creating a developer community. However, it is expected that Apple will enforce some sort of signature for developed applications. This is totally okay as long as it is not overcomplicated to acquire those digital signatures, thus scaring many developers. There should be a balance between easy of developing for iPhone and keeping iPhone protected from malware.