iPhone SDK comparison chart

So with hardware accelerated 3D graphics, an integrated database API, tightly integrated performance monitoring tools, and a highly specialized version of the Cocoa framework tweaked just for the iPhone and rechristened as Cocoa Touch, the iPhone's just-announced SDK sounds like a winner. But how does it compare to its well-entrenched competitors from Microsoft, Nokia, and the iPhone community itself? Let's have a look.

	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

[Digg @ Mar 6th 2008 2:54PM]

Dugg!
http://digg.com/apple/iPhone_SDK_comparison_chart

[Raheem @ Mar 6th 2008 2:56PM]

What exactly IS Digg? :P

[Curtis the Claw Game Master V2 @ Mar 6th 2008 2:58PM]

WTF are you the new Alex?

[Eric @ Mar 6th 2008 4:12PM]

Let's say Alex is new, explain please....

[Geir E @ Mar 6th 2008 5:22PM]

I got a sudden urge to get the sdk to create a dig dug port...

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dig_Dug for youngsters )

[Dakota @ Mar 6th 2008 5:54PM]

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".

[funkyp56 @ Mar 6th 2008 6:42PM]

First rule of Digg is you dont talk about Digg.........

[randompass @ Mar 7th 2008 3:02AM]

digg=dug

[Alex @ Mar 6th 2008 2:55PM]

where in the chart do you demonstrate that Winmo runs like crap?

[Ed @ Mar 6th 2008 2:59PM]

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.

[Lein @ Mar 6th 2008 3:07PM]

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*

[bondsbw @ Mar 6th 2008 3:19PM]

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.

[Dan_C @ Mar 6th 2008 3:28PM]

@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.

[Alex @ Mar 6th 2008 4:02PM]

But really, the UI difference between the iPhone and WinMo is gigantic.

[xbit @ Mar 6th 2008 5:54PM]

POSIX C is available on Symbian...

[Chris @ Mar 6th 2008 7:57PM]

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

[John Stracke @ Mar 6th 2008 8:37PM]

@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.)

[Jeff Lewis @ Mar 10th 2008 10:51PM]

@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.

[macserv @ Mar 14th 2008 3:54PM]

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.

[Geonerd @ Mar 6th 2008 2:55PM]

And where is the A2DP Bluetooth?????????? at least for the fkn Touch

[freakmarket @ Mar 6th 2008 7:41PM]

Hey rocket scientist ... the touch doesn't have bluetooth.

[Satish @ Mar 6th 2008 2:56PM]

I love this table :-)

[Alex @ Mar 6th 2008 2:56PM]

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...

[Ed @ Mar 6th 2008 3:01PM]

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.

[pop @ Mar 6th 2008 4:31PM]

"leer" current iPhone developers away? ... WT does that mean? ...

[pimpzilla @ Mar 6th 2008 7:29PM]

"Android does not have a strong brand..." Yeah, who ever heard of this "Google"?

[fischju @ Mar 6th 2008 2:57PM]

Can't you guys made a "Macgadget" so I can read gadget news on engadget?

[David Vogt @ Mar 6th 2008 2:59PM]

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?

[Curtis the Claw Game Master V2 @ Mar 6th 2008 3:02PM]

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.

[Raheem @ Mar 6th 2008 3:02PM]

Or maybe we could have Whinegadget... I think you see where I'm going with this.

[geekdreams @ Mar 6th 2008 3:05PM]

It's called TUAW.

[AdamY @ Mar 6th 2008 3:05PM]

Oh here, I'm sorry you dropped this:

A CLUE: iPhone *is* a gadget.

Congratulations. I expect no further stupidity from you today!

[w00t @ Mar 6th 2008 3:06PM]

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 :)

[Curtis the Claw Game Master V2 @ Mar 6th 2008 3:12PM]

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!

[fischju @ Mar 6th 2008 3:16PM]

If I scroll past this article, I see 7 more Apple articles. Then something about a toilet.

[nd @ Mar 6th 2008 3:40PM]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/20/tired-of-iphone-and-or-apple-news-on-engadget/

sheesh.

[Curtis the Claw Game Master V2 @ Mar 6th 2008 3:54PM]

"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.

[Curtis the Claw Game Master V2 @ Mar 6th 2008 3:55PM]

"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.

[nikster @ Mar 6th 2008 6:30PM]

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.

[David Vogt @ Mar 6th 2008 2:58PM]

Stop spamming.

[Jakob @ Mar 6th 2008 3:31PM]

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.

[chris @ Mar 6th 2008 2:58PM]

$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.

[Jakob @ Mar 6th 2008 3:10PM]

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)

[Brendan @ Mar 6th 2008 3:20PM]

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!

[chris @ Mar 6th 2008 3:20PM]

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.

[Adam @ Mar 6th 2008 6:29PM]

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

[YoMomma @ Mar 6th 2008 8:40PM]

Adam: ever heard of jailbreak?

[phoomp @ Mar 6th 2008 9:29PM]

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"?

[Matt @ Mar 10th 2008 11:04AM]

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?).

[Jake E. @ Mar 6th 2008 2:58PM]

So we might see cut/copy/paste soon?..