Mayuresh

Web apps on the iPhone

I’ve been wondering if Apple would resume their push to develop web apps given that Safari on the iPhone is quite a capable browser - something which Google have just proved with their very impressive upgrade to Gmail (link).

Apple of course started out with trying to convince users & developers that web apps were the way forward before releasing the SDK and the App Store, and I get the feeling that it may not be too long before Apple starts talking about the potential of web apps. This could be especially relevant if iPhone OS 3.0 delivers a more robust and noticeably faster browser.

And even if Apple doesn’t do it themselves, they’re working on providing the foundation so other developers can, thereby reducing the barrier of entry and hoping it leads to ever increasing adoption (amongst developers and users).

Interesting times ahead for web apps, especially in the mobile space, despite having come such a long way in the last 3-4 years already.

Why software is key

Two brief but very good reads on how software plays a crucial part in the quickly evolving smartphone market.

http://bit.ly/THQmx

&

http://bit.ly/6hxO

What I find most impressive about Apple

What I find most impressive about Apple is not so much their well made products, the design element or their marketing. To me it is the incredible amount of coordination that must be needed to maintain & develop so many different products, all of which integrate with each other to some extent.

How do you manage the supply chains, the production and manufacturing issues, etc., all of which are no doubt very complex & challenging, alongside the just as complex task of software engineering.

I don’t have any experience on the hardware side but thinking just purely about their software this is the list of the ones I can think of straight away:

1. Mac OS X
2. iPhone OS (which is essentially Mac OS)
3. iTunes: which in turn depend on Mac OS and to a certain extent iPhone OS
4. iPod OS: which in turn depend on iTunes
5. All the other devices such as:
   • Apple TV
   • Airport base station & Express
   • Time Machine drives

All of the software pieces listed above have dependencies on each other. I cannot even begin to imagine the huge challenge this must present in trying to keep everything in sync and to plan. And to plan I mean, large media events planned which cannot be rescheduled.

And so far I haven’t even mentioned the Pro apps. Normally these wouldn’t be tied to the OS but I get the feeling that from a development planning point of view, it does have some dependencies. Just one reason could be the various frameworks that Apple is slowly building into Mac OS which the Pro apps make generous use of.

Then there is iLife and iWork. And Mac OS Server. What the dependencies are, I’m not sure but it certainly begins to add up quite quickly.

All in all, this to me sounds like it’d be a huge challenge to manage and cannot be done properly unless there is a very clear understanding of where things are going in the short, medium and long term future.

All of this, to me, is very impressive.

I’m not sure how this compares to other large technology companies but I’d be interested to find out more.

Iran

It’s interesting to see the American administration focus so heavily on Iran so early into their tenure. What’s also interesting is how they’ve made very little noise about the Israel-Palestine issue.

About Iran I can’t help but feel that regardless of how well America handle opening of negotiations and actually talking about all the sticky points, things are unlikely to end well - for two key reasons:

1. Iran will not want to be seen buying into America-led initiatives. They will want to move the dialogue along on their own terms, on their own timescale.
2. Iran has fundamentally different objectives to those of America. It wants to be influential on the world stage, a thorn in Israel’s side (I don’t believe Iran seriously believes it can wipe Israel off the map) and be a player in Iraq.

Fundamental to Iran’s objectives is the nuclear deterrent which could prove too big a stumbling block to overcome. Maybe not if the Russians cooperate but that just confuses the issue even further…

Still, the fact that the American administration is willing to talk to them is a huge step forward, especially given the adolescent view taken by the previous American administration of even refusing to talk.

Although not directly related, there is a good PRI podcast on the middle east and the cold war, and Iran comes up quite a few times. Worth a listen I think.

Link to MP3 (sorry, can’t find show notes)

The death of Windows XP

Wondering just what it’ll mean for all the legacy apps we have at work once Win XP is no longer supported and everyone is moving to Win 7.

iPhone OS 3.0: Initial thoughts

The many user-centric features are welcome (and long overdue in some cases) but that’s not the most interesting aspect I think. The ability to create accessories that can interface with the iPhone which would have numerous uses across different industries is what has me intrigued. This, along with the new business models possible via the app store, move the iPhone platform a significant step ahead of the other smartphone platforms.