Smartphones are the big boom in the US and the next big boom in India. With the arrival of 3G there will be compelling reason for mobile users to upgrade to a smartphone. There is a good scope for small players to make little fortunes developing and selling smart phone applications. That’s why I have been giving them a serious look starting this year.
The most popular smartphone platform is of course iPhone, but it hasn’t been able to repeat its success story in India because it is locking its services with a single player who is marking up the price very high. That’s why the number of smartphones sold could be well under 10,000 according to one study. Until iPhone makes itself an open platform which works with its complete capabilities on all networks and is available for a price at par with international prices there will be very little desire for customers to shift to iPhone.
This of course is the most compelling reason why I won’t be developing for iPhone. The second reason is Apple’s tight regulatory policies and their desire not to let any other marketplace bloom than their own. The problem is not just that Apple arbitrarily rejects and approves applications but also that it decides whether your application gets any exposure and paying Apple a cut of your profits is vital if you’re developing any app for iPhone. That’s like paying Microsoft 30% on every software you make for Windows.
Since Apple is making so much money off iPhone already I don’t think it should lock the developers down so hard.
There are some other platforms available as an alternative to iPhone. Android is small but it has the potential to be a winner just like iPhone. Development on Android is free and you can get all the tools from the Android website.
All the development is in Java so you can potentially re-use some of your code to make apps for other smartphones like Blackberry and Nokia.
So I am going to be try to be an early entrant on Android. Maybe beginning with a port of one of my core applications.
