14 DAY TRIAL // What used to be referred to as “the iPhone gold rush,” tarnished a bit in the last months, is now “back with a vengeance” thanks to the 1000+ new APIs Apple has thrown in with the new iPhone OS 3.0 and Beta SDK, reports InformationWeek.
Reasons for the iPhone gold rush losing luster cited in the report are rising competition, ongoing griping about iTunes Store reviews, the application approval system and its related issues, resistance to Apple's controlling manner, and more. Now, with the iPhone 3.0 Beta SDK on the scene, developers have 1000+ more reasons to start coding hard in hope of success.
Thanks to at least one of those APIs – In-app purchases – Apple is aiming to invigorate the mobile device market for e-books and other kinds of digital media that relies on content in need of constant updating.
Developer Nick Dalton, for instance, believes that the ability to make purchases from within applications, rather than from within the iTunes / App Store, will probably add another $1 billion in revenue to the venue.
"You have already seen a lot of content made available in the form of iPhone apps for the sole reason that you can easily charge money for it; unlike the Web in general, where everything is expected to be free," Dalton said. "With these changes Apple will become the largest seller of digital products of all types. If you can digitize it, it will soon be available for sale in the App Store."
"GameKit looks awesome," said iPhone developer and programming book author Jeff LaMarche, via Twitter. "Can't say more than that because of NDA, but so far everything new I've looked at in 3.0 SDK has been a winner." The report also mentions that a popular forum for iPhone coders (iPhone Dev SDK) is filled with threads on how individual game levels can now be added on a regular basis and sold to users via the app's interface.
According to most people interviewed on Apple's latest additions to its third business pillar, overall, there's very little disappointment with the 3.0 SDK release. Some even claim Apple has hit so many right spots this time around that competition will literally be blown away. One person posting on the above-mentioned forum said, "I feel bad for Palm.” Another user stated, “No way they can survive now. I think this is the killer update. It's addressed nearly all the issues."
Softpedia note
Well, we wouldn't go as far as that, but overall, it does seem that developers' requests are being fulfilled. All we have to do now is wait and see how those APIs are put to good use.