Re: Verizon's Buzz for Motorola's Droid Fizzles at Day's End
most consumers can't afford the SDK that is out for iphone, unlike the android sdk which is free. -- tmodns.net speedtest result 11/5/09 - 2996kbps sbcglobal.net speedtest result 11/5/09 - 5256kbps
The iPhone SDK is free as well so people can play around building an simulating apps. The $99 dev connection subscription is required to install the app on a real device and sell the app in iTS where you get 70% of the revenue. But learning Objective-C is by FAR the bigger hurdle than the hundred bucks.
Consumers of these products aren't going to learn Cocoa to write their own code whether the Dev Connection is free or not. XCode comes with EVERY copy of OS X and lite versions of MS Visual Studio environments are free too but we don't see "consumers" writing their own stuff. They buy apps. "Consumers" don't give two squirts of piss about developer tools, especially for their mobile phone.
Same could be said of Android SDK. You have to have a Pee Cee or Mac to run it. A used Intel Mac (eg early Intel CS or CD Mini) that runs Leopard is a couple of hundred bucks ($399 refurbished with full warranty from TAS when they're in stock »store.apple.com/us/product/FB138LL/A), the same as a Pee Cee. And if you know Objective-C, you already have one.
Again, the dev box is the least of the challenges of developing for anything. Price isn't what is stopping "consumers" for writing software for their handsets. You could hand out brand new iMacs with pre-installed SDK for Android and iPhone and people aren't going to bother just as they don't bother with XCode or Visual Studio Express despite being free. Hell, it's rare to find a 'consumer' writing their own AppleScript and that is about as easy as it gets.
IOW, "consumers" couldn't care less about the SDK. If anything it will just make it easier for crap or malicious apps to find their way onto Android handsets. Even ITS with it's overbearing vetting process has apps leeching phone numbers and stuff. Imagine if no one was checking »[iPhone] First iPhone worm discovered - Rickrolls jailbroken pho
