iPhone app development

Question

Anybody doing mono touch development? I am planning to build iPhone apps for C# Corner and I guess I have no choice but to buy an Apple Macbook :).

Suthish Nair · Answer

waw.. you guys having a good discussion here. looking forward to read more.. Thanks Professor to join here...

Professor Xaviar · Answer

Microsoft's primary market of interest is #1 the USA, then other geographies. I probably heard about the Nokia deal before you did. Until it actually has any impact on the market, I'm skeptical. WP7 is not differentiated. MS basically came on the market with, "we can also do it, but our user interface looks a little different"... and yeah its different in that it CANNOT do a bunch of things others CAN. A good strategic differentiation would have been to be the first on the market with a 7 inch high resolution screen form factor. I predict that will be a sweet spot for many people... here's why: 7 inch will fit into a pocket 7 inch is great for web surfing 7 inch is good enough to read articles on 7 inch is good enough to watch movies on and streaming 7 inch is a great typing experience compared to 4 inch 7 inch fits PERFECTLY into a double din dashboard space in your car and after marke solutions can build docking stations 7 inch is great for Navigation 7 inch is great for doing remote desktop and controlling my pc's at home and media stations. 7 inch is great as a controller for my tv With that type of form factor you could always have your phone, music, internet, e-books, video, notes, and navigation in one device you can carry around. THAT would have been differentiation. As it stands today however, Iphone has missed that boat, and Android is starting to ship on these form factors. I predict that this will start capturing people in droves when they realize the value inherent in a 7 inch screen form factor... especially when there are models with 4G support (and the 4G doesn't cost an arm and a leg)... but once again MS will come to realize their error late in the game. I'm not anti-MS... I like the wp7 interface, but not so much i'd want to get rid of my iphone... but from what i've seen of honeycomb, the moment a good Android is out in the 7 inch form factor with 4G I will be sold, and my iphone will be in the trash. Yes many google initiatives have failed, though I disagree about gmail and some others. The same is true of MS (and more)... you wouldn't believe the number research projects and others that have flopped that the company has poored millions into that have never seen the light of day.

Mahesh Chand · Answer

Some other readings I found on IDC website. "Nokia's recent announcement to shift from Symbian to Windows Phone will have significant implications for the market going forward." "Up until the launch of Windows Phone 7 last year, Microsoft has steadily lost market share while other operating systems have brought forth new and appealing experiences," added Llamas. "The new alliance brings together Nokia's and Windows Phone's differentiated platform. We expect the first devices to launch in 2012. By 2015, IDC expects Windows Phone to be number 2 operating system worldwide behind Android." Also, let's not forget, Google does not have a good reputation of building successful products. They are fighting their own battle. Besides a couple, I do not remember anything significant product from Google that I use. The also are crappy as well. Gmail, GoogleTalks, Google Buzz, Orkut, FriendConnet are a few failed products.

Mahesh Chand · Answer

One point I want to bring your attention to is that Windows Phone OS may be the biggest player out there in near future. I am not sure if you heard but Microsoft and Nokia wedding tells me that new Nokia's will be loaded with Windows Phone. Read news here: Nokia gets $1 Billion from Microsoft . Nokia OS still is #1 mobile OS (40%). Read my blog here: Smart Phones, Software Development and the Future No body cares for Android and iPhone outside of USA. It's Nokia world out there in all developing countries and Europe. People in India, China and Europe like companies who give them options, not like Apple :). So future will tell. I personally use iPhone and have used Windows Phone. I also plan to get an Android phone (building iOS, Android and WP7 apps for this website) and I find iPhone much better than all. We shall see!

Professor Xaviar · Answer

Exactly... good recommendation. I agree. Beer sounds good. I was stating an opinion. Agree/Disagree, and even argue your point, but lets lay off the personal attacks. Let's also not try to dictate what is "useful" for everyone else. If you don't find it useful why do you even reply? I wouldn't.

Mahesh Chand · Answer

Guys! I don't think we need to take things personally here. This is a free discussion and everybody thinks different. Also, everybody can have their own opinion about questions here. Some may be right and some may be wrong. We are here to learn from each other, not to pin point each other's mistakes. Just chill! It's getting hot outside. Grab a beer! Cheers!

Professor Xaviar · Answer

Wow... where to begin. First, some of us have jobs and can't post every 5 minutes, or don't live our lives on a forum, but actually produce product. Additionally, there is nothing to admit. You haven't provided any argument based on actual real world CURRENT market evidence. Second, the last time my opinion was based on what someone else told me was about the age of 8. Since then, I've graduated to thinking for myself and using evidence to come to conclusions. So, it's not very helpful when you argue a point using someone elses opinions. I suggest you come up with your own based on solid current data. I also never let my opinions be swayed by a majority. I'm a software architect at an undisclosed large software company. One of my competencies I'm measured on is influencing large shifts of paradigms and strategies across large groups at the company. If a company can't change with the market, it suffers... but its always hard to change the opinions of the majority. The majority is many times wrong because the majority generally like to sit in the comfort of days past... basically people resist change. Third, in 2003 Android was not a threat to Microsoft and it made sense to sell MS as open and friendly, supporting .net on Linux, etc to gain more .net developers to the framework. That made sense. Today it no longer makes sense. WP directly competes with Android, and the life WP hinges on good app development. Without it, it is dead. Google would be VERY smart to buy and support it to undercut MS. Your comment regarding WP not dying is delusional. Tons of things die at MS all the time, within the last year, within the last few months. 1% of market share is not "alive", it is a coma. MS kills things that don't eventually make it money or directly drive adoption of their platforms... period. Btw, MS doesn't directly make profit with Visual Studio & .net. If you work on many different platforms as you say, you are either a mediocre out of work dev no one will hire (in which case MS doesn't care about your opinion), or you are specifically paid a large amount of money to do so. Good developers that must target/focus their precious time on the most impactful (high ROI) projects and platforms will pick one platform and stick with it for a while until they have enough money to build for others. Lastly, it is one of the telltale signs that a person is insecure when they begin negatively labeling and classifying another individual. That is what you did in labeling me a troll. This is just another indicator that you might be an out of work mediocre programmer. Now that you've been labeled, perhaps you will understand how rude it is.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Professor Xaviar, will you admit your mistake if there is clear evidence that Microsoft is supporting Mono? A troll is someone that posts messages just for the fun of making trouble. I hope you have productive and useful material for us. If however you just have criticisms to contribute, I will likely ignore further messages from you. So please don't misinterpret an abasence of a reply to be submission.

Mahesh Chand · Answer

Here is a good link that tells otherwise. http://techrights.org/2011/04/12/yanking-mono-from-android/ From the same link: "Microsoft has been defeated by GNU/Linux avers The Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin. But, there are Microsoft partners like Novell (and Mono ) which will not give up so easily. Mono team continues to bombard the free software world with Microsoft's C# language and .Net implementation. Unfortunately, Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has become an unaware puppet playing as proxy friend of Microsoft by making Banshee the default music player of Ubuntu. It means a hell lot of Mono will be pre-intsalled on your Ubuntu machine."

Mahesh Chand · Answer

I disagree. Microsoft has been silently supporting Mono (though Novell) for a while and had interest in getting Migual on board in year 2003. Also, Visual Studio integration with Mono shows that Microsoft wants Mono to survive. I think it is in favor of Microsoft that developers use C# to write iPhone and Android apps. After all, C# is Microosft's baby. I am a developer and I develop for everything - Web, Windows, WPF, Silverlight, WP7, Mono :). If we say, WP will die or iPhone will kill everybody, it will never happen. They all will survive side by side. It's matter of what share everyone gets. It's Apple, who does not what to share anything. Today, they may be doing well because of their "Cool" products but once somebody tops them in coolness, that is a dead company :).

Professor Xaviar · Answer

You guys have this ALL wrong/backwards. Microsoft has no strategic interest in Mono living. In fact, it would be the biggest strategic mistake for Google to allow Mono to die. There are thousands of c# developers just itching to write apps for droid using mono and with that Microsoft will lose app developers for its own wp7 OS and future OS's. A developer only has so much time, and if he has to pick a platform to write an app for, he's wants to write on the most popular one to maximize profits. Having to switch gears and right in Java or C++ instead of c# is a barrier to entry onto the Android platform for many c# developers. Now that Mono seems to be dying, they will tend to stay closer to home and write wp7 apps. Microsoft wants that... google does not. Again, it would be a big mistake and lost opportunity for Google to let Mono die. They could single handedly suck whatever tiny spec of life wp7 has out of it and kill it by buying and fully supporting Mono... drawing all the c# devs over to the Android platform.

Ibrahim Ersoy · Answer

My friend made a Flash Game running on iPhone.But to that he needed to crack.iPhone didnt support Flash when he first developed. And he was unable to sell it on the Apple Store.But i heard Apple will be supporting Flash for iPhone in the future so thats an alternative way for you :)