Development on the iPhone and Related Issues...

[Sulley]

bihnmihn (sorry for the lack of the exact posting quote :weird:), raised an interesting point in a different thread and I wanted to start a new one to address it. To paraphrase, and bhnmihm, please correct me if I am off-track, but they mentioned that iambic seems to release Agendus on many platforms, but then may not fully develop them out to the level of completeness and quality of the product on the Palm.

I have only used Agendus on the Palm and now, the iPhone. I haven't seen the state of affairs of things on the other platforms. It would concern me if iambic jumps on many platforms with Agendus and then fails to develop them to a level that is anywhere near on par with the Palm version.

I raised a point in another thread, but I'll post it here again and I'd like to know where Adriano and Michael stand on it.

I realize that iambic has other platforms to develop for, but none are as fast paced in changes as the iPhone (or as competitive to develop for, either). A new phone every year. Two major new OS releases in the two years since the initial release of the iPhone. I said in another post that I didn't think a 4.0 OS would be coming by next year, but there will be a new OS to handle the new hardware (whatever it is) at a bare minimum and adding other new features, or enabling existing hardware features that currently exist in product (like the 3.0 OS enabling A2DP Bluetooth on existing 3G iPhones), definitely will happen -- it's just a matter of how many changes will happen. This year, the biggest push was the OS itself. It gave even current iPhone users a significantly better phone and developers a much more robust SDK to work with.

We are also running across really frustrating delays in the time it takes from submission of a new version to Apple and posting on the App Store. The public is two versions behind where development is (which, from Adriano's latest post, is working on v1.3 and is done with v1.02). This is becoming a real problem, as well.

Adriano and Michael, what are your thoughts about this concept on how fast the iPhone platform is moving and how competitive the developers are on the App Store? How is Agendus going to keep up with the rapid developments and other competition? I am especially curious about this given a user questioning whether iambic is going to keep adding platforms and failing to fully develop them out. I realize this is one user's opinion, but I'm curious if it's a feeling you share and have dealt with internally. Since I've only used the Palm and iPhone Agendus, I don't know if that is a real issue, but is a concern of mine now. I'd love to hear a candid answer about at least some of the issues I've raised (and I know this ended up being a bunch).

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

[Alphacodex]

Hey Sulley...

Honestly, what answer do you expect??

"Yes you are right, we jumped on so many platforms that our customers will not get fully developed versions of Agendus, because we just can't keep up with updating on all that platforms??" ;-)

Anyways: The Palm Version will die sooner or later. The Pre has a new OS and I would expect that the older Palm Products based on PalmOS will be discontinued sooner or later. That means Palm will be out of the race, and V13 is quite "finished" anyway.

So what Platforms is iambic developing on in the future?
WindowsMobile
iPhone
Blackberry
Symbian

Should be possible...or not??

Greetz
Codex

[Sulley]

Hey Sulley...

Honestly, what answer do you expect??

"Yes you are right, we jumped on so many platforms that our customers will not get fully developed versions of Agendus, because we just can't keep up with updating on all that platforms??" ;-)

Anyways: The Palm Version will die sooner or later. The Pre has a new OS and I would expect that the older Palm Products based on PalmOS will be discontinued sooner or later. That means Palm will be out of the race, and V13 is quite "finished" anyway.

So what Platforms is iambic developing on in the future?
WindowsMobile
iPhone
Blackberry
Symbian

Should be possible...or not??

Codex,

I'm especially curious about their feelings on developing on a platform that is something that has never been so fast-growing (and changing) before. The iPhone/iPod Touch platform is unlike any other smartphone, for a number of reasons, not only it's very quickly built userbase of over 40 million total users (plus the million plus from the 3GS sales so far). The hardware isn't coming from multiple developers, but is coming with a new significant updates once a year (in the Summer, announced at WWDC). These updates aren't all hardware, but with both new phones (meaning the 3G & 3GS), a real update in the OS for existing users has been introduced. It's something that no developers have seen before.

I'm not a Mac user (but probably will be the next time I need a computer), but I am a big supporter of the iPhone. I may not like all of Apple's decisions (and to some extent, I'm including AT&T in this -- at least for the US, since I know you are in Germany). I've been a PC user for about 14 years and a computer user for going on 30 years, starting with Atari and Apple around 1980. This is a phenonmenon that is significant, and although it may not be unique, it's still a different thing than what any developers for smartphones (and in many cases, computer platform developers, as well) have ever seen.

That's where I was going with the question. I know it got a little out of hand, but it deserved its own thread because originally, I asked part of the question in a different thread and it grew from there. I'm just curious on their feedback. As I said, the only Agendus products I've seen are the Palm and the iPhone, so I don't know where things stand everywhere else.

I hope AGiPH is a platform iambic is going to push as far as Palm has gone. The iPhone is here to stay and, from the recent release of the 3GS producing double the expected sales in the first weekend (in a smaller number of countries than the 3G release producing unit sales of a million, rather than the expected 500,000), I think the public has made it clear that they will continue to upgrade and adopt the platform, despite contractual issues with their cell phone carriers (and all of the costs associated with early upgrading, etc). I read somewhere that 12% of 3GS purchasers were new to cell phones completely (no current cell phone or carrier). It's pulling people in from all corners. And, other people will get their old iPhones when they do upgrade. It's providing a dynamic that is one that is going to be tough to master without an all-out effort. I'm hoping iambic is willing to make that effort to get the results that will happen if they produced a similar product to the currently existing Palm version (ignoring the Apple-imposed limitations, which I know, are a big issue for development -- it's just not a big, open sandbox where things you can do whatever you want).

Just another book of comments on my questions! Sorry about the rambling...:bulb:

[adriano]

Sulley and Codex,

as my usual, in short to your questions / comments above:

- at this time we don't quite feel like disclosing our plans for future platforms, if/when Agendus will be available on X or Y phone, etc.

- consider though that like the majority of the other devs, we are driven by potential customerbase, and distribution opportunities (cause at the end of the day one thing is the fun of messing around with nice toys and sdks, and another is generating something out all all this fun to do things such as... pay the rent, groceries, etc. ;)). That said, for some developer a platform (read: the iPhone and/or the BlackBerry) became so prominent in terms of userbase and opportunity that shaded all the others. And that might just be what will happen for us.

What above sort of contains the answer to your questions... I believe.

- Adriano