App Store

70% for developer, 30% for apple.

Source: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program/distribute.html

Does this signal a new market opportunity for mobile and casual developers?
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I think there’s a huge amount of effort already gone into targeting the iPhone among those groups.
I think, like happened with mobile, the hard bit will change very quickly from capacity to develop quality apps to capacity to stand out in a very crowded marketplace.

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Some of my mates have managed to get OS X running on a standard WinTel box. Just FYI…

It will only work properly under Leopard (OSX 10.5) and is Intel h/w only. The Simulator is quite simple (in so far as it does not actual emulate the h/w just offers a cut down OSX i386 sdk and ogl window on mac) so is good enouhgt o get things working, but you will prob still find issues when you move to the h/w. The sync to the h/w requires a developer dev lic, which issomething like $99. The acuall SDKs and compiler are free, only Leopard itself and the h/w dev lic are not .

Hi, long time no see… Just a few thoughts before I post more news :)

Yes, Apple has completely destroyed the operators’ barriers. Before you were forced to go through a publisher, which led you to 25% royalties at most, or even 10% if you had an aggregator in between. 70 compared to 10 to 25 is a huge relief for the developers, who were the weak link in the value chain. Not taking into account that Apple generated 30M$ in one month, when this figure is reached painfully in a quarter with all US carriers combined…

As I said previously, I see a few problems though. First, the store seems to quicky look like Handango. There are now more than 800 games, growing very quickly. When you browse on the device, contrary to the desktop version of iTunes, you have no categories to split games. So you’re thrown in a maze of games, lots of them being cheap games. Hard to get noticed. Result, most of the featured games are those from EA, Gameloft and other big players. Some developers say that at the beginning, with few apps, they made tons of money, and once they were dropped of the top 50, sales declined instantly, becoming anecdotic.

Another problem is the fact that Apple completely controls the store and you have no way to sell your application elsewhere. Recently, a developer saw his podcaster application refused because "it duplicates a functionality of the desktop version of itunes"…

Also, I’m skeptical of the 70/30. This was the same revenue model when XBLA began, and once XBLA became a major platform with lot of games, the royalty was cut in half, becoming 35/65 (at least for the small developers and indies out there). Who knows what happens in the future ?

All in all, I stay positive since all the business model in mobile gaming industry never quite worked, and a bomb has been dropped, which should solve a lot of problems. Best example is T-Mobile US announcing the creation of a similar store, where every developer can sell his app. Microsoft is also working on such a store for its upcoming Windows Mobile 7.

Concerning the SDK, it does work on a PC hacked to boot Leopard, however if you read carefully the agreement, you "swear" to install the Apple SDK only on Apple machines. Any other computers are forbidden for the SDK.

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Concerning the SDK, it does work on a PC hacked to boot Leopard, however if you read carefully the agreement, you "swear" to install the Apple SDK only on Apple machines. Any other computers are forbidden for the SDK.[/quote:ef887ed128]

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/terms/registered_iphone_developer_20080306.pdf <EULA for iPhone SDK. No mention of hardware restrictions at all -> install wherever you like.

The EULA for OSX however says "This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time."

Interestingly, when you buy OSX, there are two apple stickers inside; so my PC is now Apple-labeled. :)

I don’t know where you clicked to get this pdf, but if you login with your developer account and ask to display the agreement to which you accepted to be bound, read carefully the following sections:
2.2.a
2.5

I won’t copy them because you are for sure aware that when you accepted this agreement, you accepted the NDA which comes with it ;)

It’s clear anyway, Apple doesn’t want its SDK to run on anything else than a Mac.

It’s on the "I want to sign up and download the iPhone SDK" page, and appears before you click accept. Which I didn’t do, so I don’t feel bad for sharing it. :D

Apparently a college has launched an iPhone videogame course. Does this mean the iPhone is a DS or PSP nemesis?

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/09/22/qantm_college_iphone/

Apparently a college has launched an iPhone videogame course.
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Paying 5K for a 3 month iphone specific dev course?
I’m skepitical Knowing nothing about the organisation behind it, first thing that jumps out is that this is may be a cynical money making exercise.

Does this mean the iPhone is a DS or PSP nemesis?
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*confused*
Are you asking if the fact that a college has launched a 3 month iphone video game course means the iphone is a DS or PSP nemesis?

Paying 5K for a 3 month iphone specific dev course?
I’m skepitical Knowing nothing about the organisation behind it, first thing that jumps out is that this is may be a cynical money making exercise.
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Sounds like it is ….

*confused*
Are you asking if the fact that a college has launched a 3 month iphone video game course means the iphone is a DS or PSP nemesis?
[/quote:0507e6c5e4]

Nope…more like…will we be playing ‘Brain Training’ etc. in 2009, on our iPhone as opposed to our DS’s, which ‘maybe’ confined to a drawer – now that everyone :wink: is going to start making games for them.

Nope…more like…will we be playing ‘Brain Training’ etc. in 2009, on our iPhone as opposed to our DS’s, which ‘maybe’ confined to a drawer – now that everyone Wink is going to start making games for them.[/quote:a93bfb5b48]

It’s a fair question.
My .02 is that 2009 is much too soon, but by 2011, maybe. It depends on the penetration the iphone gets, and how apple manage the platform.
If it becomes as ubiquitous as the ipod is now (which I could see happening as the price point drops), it could be very interesting – depending on whether
* Apple can increase penetration, while at the same time stopping the platform from fragmenting as they push more and cheaper models
* they manage the app store properly, to deal with the issues of application overload, and lack of quality, (wouldn’t be surprised to eventually see user profiling for applications/games, a la genius feature)

If so, then I think Nintendo in particular, who have done so well with the casual play DS titles, will be paying attention… maybe we’ll see a DS phone or something :-)

Agreed…Nokia will be watching with interest too, their ‘music’ download service, if it gains market share, can easily be used as distribution channel for games. Its a shame that too many nokia models, make it too difficult to port and test games. N-Gage and E models are good, but still not close to an iPhones game-ability. A DS phone, thats interesting….I know a few people that would buy one already!