iPhone SDK comparison chart
By Nilay Patel 
posted Mar 6th 2008 2:50PM
posted Mar 6th 2008 2:50PM
| Apple iPhone SDK | Toolchain | Windows Mobile | S60 | Android | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost |
Free | Free | Free; could be more depending on tools used | Free; could be more depending on tools used | Free |
| Wide-scale app availability |
June | Now | Now | Now | Depends on device availability |
| Native development |
Yes |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Languages suppoted for native development |
Objective-C | Objective-C | C++, C#, VB.NET |
C++ | Java |
| Digital certificates |
Required for distribution | No | Available, required for some phones | Available, required for some phones | No |
| Retail support |
Full; 30 percent Apple revenue share; free apps allowable | No | Limited | Limited | No, but Android Developer Challenge offers money and publicity |
| Platform maturity |
Immature | Immature | Mature | Mature | Immature |
| First-party support |
Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Community support |
Just getting started! |
Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent |
| App installation method |
Direct (App Store), iTunes | Installer.app, custom | Direct, ActiveSync | Direct, PC Suite | Unknown; installation on emulator is not reflective of production devices |
| Emulator available |
Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Remote debugging |
Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Target device variety |
Poor | Poor | Excellent | Good | Poor (that will change, though) |
| Touchscreen support |
Multi-touch |
Multi-touch | Single touch | Umm... soon? | Single touch |
| App availability and variety |
Poor (that will change, though) | Good | Excellent | Excellent | Poor (that will change, though) |
| Underlying architecture |
Cocoa Touch / Mac OS X |
Mac OS X |
Windows | Symbian | Linux |
| Flash availability |
No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Java availability |
No | In development | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Dugg!
http://digg.com/apple/iPhone_SDK_comparison_chart
What exactly IS Digg? :P
WTF are you the new Alex?
Let's say Alex is new, explain please....
I got a sudden urge to get the sdk to create a dig dug port...
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dig_Dug for youngsters )
See, Digg is a website where people "digg" websites. If they get enough "diggs" or votes, they go to a main page.
Normally, the top-secret cabal of power users have more voting influence than others, thus most webpages do not appear on said main page.
This cabal of users decides mainly what goes on the main page or not, even though "all users are equal".
First rule of Digg is you dont talk about Digg.........
digg=dug
And where is the A2DP Bluetooth?????????? at least for the fkn Touch
Hey rocket scientist ... the touch doesn't have bluetooth.
where in the chart do you demonstrate that Winmo runs like crap?
Indeed. I use my Windows Mobile PDA fairly often for GPS stuff, but the OS is massively unstable. It's like running Windows 2.3 again - crashes and hangs frequently, poor UI and plain ugly. I think thats a massive massive factor that Microsoft have to compete with and are going to do so as fast as they possibly can. They won't want to watch their Windows Mobile business end up like their music player business.
Subjective.
My new (used) HTC Apache with Windows Mobile 6 (soon to be 6.1) hasn't given me any problems over the few months I've been using it.
That said, I'm a long-time user of Windows Mobile (since early 2002,) and I certainly won't deny that it has its share of stability problems. But that's in exchange for a platform that is remarkably versatile and highly functional.
It certainly has gotten a lot better, though.
*braces for fiery replies*
I want to know why the WinMo entry for "C++/.NET" is listed as green, but "C++" and "Objective-C" is listed red.
I'm a C# programmer (have been for 5 years) -- I've never used Objective-C, C++ is the devil, yada yada -- but calling one language better than another, when both are widely used and platform-specific, is stupid.
@bondsbw
The languages supported is green for Windows Mobile because there are multiple languages that you can use for it while all the other platforms only use one language.
But really, the UI difference between the iPhone and WinMo is gigantic.
POSIX C is available on Symbian...
And the only rule of Mao is you're not allowed to know the rules of Mao!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_%28game%29
@Dan_C:
That row is labelled "languages supported for native development", which should not include .Net. If you include .Net, you have to include interpreted languages in general—and then you find that Symbian has Python, Java, and Ruby.
(Actually, there used to be .Net for Symbian, but the company that made it went out of business.)
@Alex
You can make controls that look essentially identical to iPhone on WiMo. Go look at www.PointUI.com for an example of what you CAN do. It's just that until now, it wasn't an issue for most users. I suspect it still isn't.
The iPhone's platform, Cocoa Touch, is based on the Mac OS X Cocoa framework, which has been around since 1988. Anyone with a clue about framework design and robustness would be reticent to call it "Immature".
Also, Objective-C blows both C++ and VB out of the water. C# is definitely nicer, but was developed with languages like Objective-C and Java in hindsight.
Not to mention Android, which when released will be Apple's biggest competition. Maybe thats why there's the 100m "iFund"? Which will hopefully not leer current iPhone app developers away...
Android remains very theoretical until any devices support it. I don't think they're real competitors, Android is a platform - the iPhone/iTouch is - but it combines hardware and software under a strong brand. Android does not have a strong brand, yet at least.
"leer" current iPhone developers away? ... WT does that mean? ...
"Android does not have a strong brand..." Yeah, who ever heard of this "Google"?
From their announcement online, for Touch-ettes:
"Third party applications created for the iPhone will also run on the iPod touch, and iPod touch users will be required to purchase a software update to run these applications"
Looks like a one-off!
I love this table :-)
Still no flash support?!!?!?
Can't you guys made a "Macgadget" so I can read gadget news on engadget?
I was thinking that same thing! I'm sick of all the apple crap on this site, why not just make a new site for all the fanboys?
I think it's time for everyone that hates the Apple news (if you can call it that) to go find another site or stop complaining. There must be over a million comments complaining about to much Apple care etc...and none of it has made a difference. So save yourself some time and write a comment on another article or about the article your complaining about.
Or maybe we could have Whinegadget... I think you see where I'm going with this.
It's called TUAW.
Oh here, I'm sorry you dropped this:
A CLUE: iPhone *is* a gadget.
Congratulations. I expect no further stupidity from you today!
In case you've not noticed, the iPhone SDK is huge in gadget news and any self respecting unbiased blog would give it ample coverage.
I read Engadget most days and there is plenty of gadget news on here from a wide variety of manufacturers and devices
At the end of the day, this is a blog. It doesn't cost you anything and you don't control the content. If you don't like the show, change the channel :)
Also I have a good tip for you...believe it or not, you don't have to click every single story link! I've heard rumors that you can actually scroll past an article you don't want to read, and then...wait for it...CLICK ON ONE YOU WANT TO READ!
If I scroll past this article, I see 7 more Apple articles. Then something about a toilet.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/20/tired-of-iphone-and-or-apple-news-on-engadget/
sheesh.
"If I scroll past this article, I see 7 more Apple articles. Then something about a toilet."
OK, so how long did it take you to click on this article, type your 1st comment, type in your user name and password(if they weren't saved), hit add comment, and then come back a second time and reply? I can guarantee it took more time then it would take to find the first 5 non-apple stories.
"If I scroll past this article, I see 7 more Apple articles. Then something about a toilet."
OK, so how long did it take you to click on this article, type your 1st comment, type in your user name and password(if they weren't saved), hit add comment, and then come back a second time and reply? I can guarantee it took more time then it would take to find the first 5 non-apple stories.
Just use Feedrinse.com, set the filter to Apple, and bingo, no more Apple news in your Engadget feed. Create a bookmark from it, and use that from now on. You'll never see an Apple related post again! You can add a filter for iPhone as well, just to be on the safe side.
I am telling you this so that you may go away and our paths may never cross again on Engadget. Peace.
Stop spamming.
Haha when I look at your post story, many of your posts say something about Engadget is an Apple-site, "What has Apple to do with this" etc.
So David Vogt, stop spamming.
$99 is for the store... THE SDK IS FREE
and THE SDK APPS will most likely work via installer.app to avoid the 99$ fee entirely on the developer side or thats what i'd imagine.
But if the only way to distribute applications are through the store, then you have to pay the $99 (I think they should make it free)
Yeah, but you don't have an upfront cost to make an app. I think a lot more people will give making an app a shot if it costs them nothing. if they have something they think is good, spend the money and put it on the store. If they find themselves talentless, lazy, or a combination, they haven't wasted any money!
no you dont have to pay the 99$ to distribute, you always have the fallback via the old method (jailbrake and installer.app) as apple has already shown theirs going to be lots of rules .. such as no voip over edge, and no unlocking apps.
Couldn't someone theoretically create some sort of free app group where developers get together to create and post apps so everyone is not paying the $99
Adam: ever heard of jailbreak?
Yep. Steve sounded all humanitarian-like when he said that Apple would eat the distribution costs for developers who want to distribute their software for free. Yet, they still have to pay the $99. Which is what? An "administrative fee"?
Reminds me of what Microsoft and XNA. They charge $99 per year just to run your XNA games/applications on your 360. That's not native access and you still have no way to distribute the games (yet?).
So we might see cut/copy/paste soon?..
Yeah... in June...
..for the low-low price of $9.99
per character.
Since i moved to smartphones i cant live with out copy and paste :D
Downloading the SDK now... 2.15G @67% completed.
I think it's time for everyone that hates the Apple news (if you can call it that) to go find another site or stop complaining. There must be over a million comments complaining about to much Apple care etc...and none of it has made a difference. So save yourself some time and write a comment on another article or about the article your complaining about.
its funny how engadget is now trying to make it look like they're not too much of an apple fan (the way it could sometimes appear in the past).
lets look at what in this comparison screams out as poor journalism:
Wide Availability: DUH. They just said so. The only reason that entry is there is to make the AppleSDK look bad. If there was a comparison without the AppleSDK, this wouldn't be there.
Community support: Again, this is STUPID. You don't think there wiil be a HUGE community around this? Of course it is just getting started, but that doesn't necessarily mean its worse than others.
Target device variety: WHAT THE HECK? Thats like saying Lego makes their blocks compatible with a poor variety of toys. It's the same as getting mad that OS X is only made for Macs. Again, DUH.
App Availability: again, geez, state the obvious. If its "going to change" why would you put it as a negative?
This article is anything but objective.
"Community support: Again, this is STUPID. You don't think there wiil be a HUGE community around this? Of course it is just getting started, but that doesn't necessarily mean its worse than others."
> I don't think this is a comparison of a hypothetical time in the future but rather how things stand now. Even at some hypothetical point in the future, it would be hard to imagine it could rival the myriad of .Net communities out there (and most .Net communities can help with .Net CF stuff, as it is merely a subset)
"Target device variety: WHAT THE HECK? Thats like saying Lego makes their blocks compatible with a poor variety of toys. It's the same as getting mad that OS X is only made for Macs. Again, DUH."
>Uh, this is actually a pretty important point. As a developer it makes a lot more sense to market to Symbian or WMo (in that order) just given the size of the customer base and the spread of devices across price points.
"App Availability: again, geez, state the obvious. If its "going to change" why would you put it as a negative?"
>Should we also talk about what MS is going to do? Should we talk about the fact that Silverlight will be available as a dev platform on Symbian and WMo? Or should we focus on today?
The complaints can go both ways. They market it as a negative against MS that some of their professional developer tools are for pay, despite the fact that Visual C# Express + WMo SDk is free, and a better dev environment than any of the competitors offer, free or for money. Is it really a ding that you can then fork over for the professional versions of Visual studio?
The thing is, the engadget guys are a bunch of bloggers. Any comparison they make about the SDK is going to be pretty flawed; they are just going to run through a bullet point list of "marketing features" rather than being able to perform any detailed comparison that an engineer would be able to. I think we all recognize that, so complaining about the nature of their comparison is pretty pointless (likewise, one could argue that the actual comparison is pointless except as flame war fodder to be referenced by one side or another that also doesn't understand enough to site any point more in depth. I don't see them a comparison of game SDKs, sony vs. MS popping up, because that doesn't really do any consumer any good; I can't help but think this is the same thing)
That's a lot of red in the Apple SDK column.
Yet it's actually missing some of the benefits mentioned in the first paragraph...
Does it support Flash Player or Flex Applications?
"Poor (that will change, though)"
Thanks for pointing that out to make the fanbase feel a little better about themselves. Really. Do you really need to state that that will change though?
I'm pretty sure you have to purchase a licensed copy of Visual Studio to develop for Window Mobile. The SDKs are free, but the apps to program cost money.
There are free Express Editions of Microsoft's developer tools available.
But I'm pretty sure you still need a "licensed" copy of Visual studio to develop for Windows Mobile.
Sho nuff. Express is the only VS edition not supported. Of course, this more or less balances out since Apple wants $99 for a developer certificate.
wtf? no you do not
Conversely what a pro-apple zealot fanboi you are.
Whatever happened to the days of just liking a fucking product instead of treating it like the damn Holy freaking Grail?
Stupid comment system.
Oh... you mean I have to?... ok then.
*navigates to www.whinegadget.com*
I am the most epic fail ever.
Nice to compare a SDK thats not even release yet to others that have about 10 year out. that don't make any freaking sense does it??????
Well, you have to really. Seeing as everyone else is using them.
Ok, what.the.fuck is this crap? Seriously.
Wide availability? Platform maturity? It came out TODAY...
Target device variety? This is the iPhone's sdk, remember? Not
This comparison chart shows just about all the problems with comparison charts.
Have a nice day...
You quite finished talking to yourself? :)
No one else listens :(
I have a Holy Grail. And it is pretty damn freaking cool!
still no flash and java. awesome apple! they're overrated anyways.
Way to pull shit out of your ass. Typical anti-Apple zealot.
STILL NO FLASH AND JAVA!!!!! we're getting 3d games and other crap and every enterprise feature known to man but not even a basic copy of flashlite???? GIVE ME A BRAKE!
*Hands over a disc brake* Break, perhaps?
With so much of todays announcements designed to dis RIM and target the, in the enterprise (and with RIM @ 41% of smartphone compared to Apples 28%), you'd think RIM would be in this chart, no?
Let me fill in the blanks:
Cost: free
Wide availability: Now
Native development: Java (J2ME) APIs only (MIDP and Blackberry APIs). RIM gets access to the the interal APIs that 3rd party dev don't (and they of course let big name comapanies get special treatment access to the same for undisclosed terms)
Languages supported: Java
Digital certificates: digital signing required fro some features. $$$.
Retail support: Limited
Platform maturity: Mature
First-party support: Yes
Community support: Fair
App installation: Direct, Web->USB ActiveX control, Desktop Manager, BES Push
Emulator available: Yes
Remote debugging: Yes
Target device variety: OK
Touchscreen: Coming?
App availability / variety: Good
Underlying architecture: Blackberry OS / J2ME
Flash availability: No
Java availability: Yes
Excuse me, toolchain allows you to program in JavaScript (Jiggy), Python (through PyObjC), Ruby etc.
But its Intel Only.
"30 percent Apple revenue share"
Seriously, suck my balls Apple.
well if there making your apps available throw itunes to millions of customers and also making sure you get paid, 30% its not bad at all. or you can try making something available to palm users and selling it yourself
Are you an idiot? Apple hosts your app and you complain that they want 30% for it? Where is your false sense of entitlement coming from? Never mind the fact that if your app is free Apple will host it FOR FREE? Yeah I can see how Apple is ripping you off by hosting your free app and not charging you for it. What a bunch of bastards.
@Zak
I like that their hosting the apps and paying the developers. But don't pretend that they are doing (free app)developers a service. They are charging 99 to license the app. So if you are not charging for your app, you are 99 in the hole.... Granted 99 isn't all that much, but it's the principle. They want to claim that they developed the app store so that developers could get their apps in front of every iphone but why make that the exclusive delivery method? I don't know why they are hiding behind this when everyone assumed that they would be this would be the only delivery method because apple likes to keep a stranglehold on their platform and applications (and that's not necessarily a bad thing, so dont misconstrue that fanboi's)
Why don't we all stop griping about the specifics of the announcement and start the rumor mill up about how long it takes the fantastic programmers that brought us jailbreaks and sim unlocks to bypass the licensing and distribution systems apple has in place for the 2.0 framework..
When is apple going to release the SDK for the ipod touch?
It's the same SDK!
S60 still kicks arse, and don't forget about Python, Open-C and Web based widgets in the supported languages.
Objective-C on the red? That's not very objective :)
1. It's a pretty decent language and should be even better on iPhone - you've got many goodies of high-level languages like duck typing and garbage collection, but you can drop "Objective" part any time and optimize code a lot.
2. It's compatible with C, so you could easily translate from another language or embed script interpreter in your application (there are plenty of them available already)
It's $99 only if you want the App Store to distribute your application - the SDK itself is free.
"If I scroll past this article, I see 7 more Apple articles. Then something about a toilet."
OK, so how long did it take you to click on this article, type your 1st comment, type in your user name and password(if they weren't saved), hit add comment, and then come back a second time and reply? I can guarantee it took more time then it would take to find the first 5 non-apple stories.
Calling S60 SDK "mature" is an euphemism. It's an outdated old junk severly crippled with hacks made for early pre-C++ and lack of real multitasking.
I think you are so amusing. Keep up your clever remarks. We need clown relief every so often. You may become our pet Court Jester. You wear the bells on your hat so well.
Seriously, this chart has problems. How does it make sense to use availability as a meaningful comparison point when the SDK isn't even out? And why have multiple comparison points that all do basically nothing but say, "iphone SDK not out yet. srry." its reallystupid. The only actual negatives this chart brings light to is the lack of Java and Flash.
Based on this weeks announcement, I think you need to add one more row to your comparison chart. That row should be "Silverlight Availability"
Link to the FREE SDK:
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/sdk1/
Funny. I just downloaded the iPhone SDK and it didn't cost me $99. $99 is only if you decide to distribute your apps through Apple.