iPhone OS 3.0 Is Good and Bad News for Developers
The much-ballyhooed press event Tuesday on Apple’s Cupertino, Calif., campus for iPhone OS 3.0 has generally been hailed as uniformly good news for iPhone users. Although it will be months before the upgrade is released, iPhone users will be able to download it for free, and iPod touch users will be able to purchase the upgrade for just $9.95.
Bundled into the new OS are numerous features for which iPhone users have been clamoring, including Multimedia Messaging Service capabilities, stereo Bluetooth, cut and paste, and push notification for applications.
But for iPhone application developers, the unveiling of the iPhone OS 3.0 specs was a classic “good news, bad news” scenario.
Surge in Game Revenues?
First, the good news. The iPhone OS 3.0 software developers kit (SDK) contains more than one thousand new application programming interfaces (APIs), substantially expanding the potential of the iPhone as a software platform.
Two features have attracted particular attention: The ability of apps to use CoreData, a data-handling tool developed by Apple as part of its Mac OS X, and GameKit, tools which enable applications to connect to other phones in peer-to-peer mode and chat in real time.
Zippy Aima, an industry analyst for digital media for ABI Research, said the new features give the iPhone a significant edge over other mobile devices. “The new updates on the phone will position iPhone as a device that has music, video and an advanced gaming platform,” Aima said. “It’s good news not only for gamers, but also offers new revenue-generating models for the mobile industry.”
Perhaps the most exciting feature of GameKit is the ability of game developers (and other app sellers) to offer in-app upgrades for new levels, character features, and so on. Some reports suggest that in-app sales could generate as much as $1 billion in new revenue within the first 12 months….
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