OK, so does anyone besides me remember back in 2007 when Apple launched the iPhone how Apple told developers that there was not going to be an SDK and that they should just develop web apps instead? Then, developers complained and the following year we had an SDK. Fast forward to today, and the App Store has over 140,000 applications and there have been over 3 Billion (!!!) total download. All that in just over 18 months!
So, last week Apple drops the iPad. We can make fun of the silly name all day long, but people did the same thing when the iPod was released in 2001. To be honest, the name iPod makes less sense than the name iPad, but then again, iPod doesn’t sound (as much) like a feminine hygiene product. Anyway, I believe that the iPad was Apple’s response to the developer’s response to the iPhone. Obviously the developers think the the iPhone is a great device to develop for, they may not like Apple’s policies and restrictions, but they obviously like the device because they keep making software for it.
There have been other mobile platforms before the iPhone that had SDKs (Windows Mobile, Palm OS), and they never got a response nearly as positive as what Apple is seeing with the iPhone. iPhone OS isn’t the only next gen mobile OS out there, but Web OS and Android are growing as fast, though Android could catch up eventually (Palm will be out of business in the next 5 years). So, the device itself must be very attractive to developers.
Apple now makes a device that improves on the iPhone in two key areas. It has a larger screen and it’s faster. I’m going to ignore the fact that it doesn’t have a camera because it will have a camera. The current model can even support a camera, but it was taken out last minute. Probably because apple never finished iChat for iPad or whatever. Apple is hoping that developers will get behind this device and create apps that are just a great as iPhone apps, but much more powerful. They set the tone by creating iWork for iPad, and it has encouraged long-time Mac developers like the Omni Group to create iPad versions of their apps.
If the mac developer community gets on board with the iPad, then it will become a very interesting device. All of the complaints about it can be easily fixed in the software (It’s currently running a modified versions of the iPod touch’s OS, but as time goes on, Apple will be force to make it more robust, and we’ll see features like background processing).
I’m exited about the iPad. Will I buy one? Probably not right now. I’m going to wait for version 2.0. I’ve never been an early adopter and I want to see if things will pan out as I suspect they will.
