Nov 03 2008
Thinking like Apple
I was going to spend the week, talking about writing applications for the iPhone. But then it occurred to me that you might find that about as interesting as watching paint dry. So I’ll just briefly discuss it here and then the marketing aspect of the software tomorrow.
When the iPhone 3G was released, I wasn’t too impressed. When they opened it up to 3D party applications, then i was impressed.
Being able to move my product onto the iPhone became paramount. It must be done.
With that being said, the first place to start is with Apple. Unlike designing software for regular PCs or Macs, the iPhone has a process.
The process is simple
- Build and iPhone App on your local computer
- Submit the application to Apple
- Application now appears in iTunes for purchase
As soon as applications were being built, articles flooded the tech blogosophere about Apple rejecting these applications. Reasons were sometimes precise and other times non-existent. Ask Lord Google about “Apple Rejects iPhone App”.
The last thing I wanted to do was to have spent money on building an iPhone application and have Apple reject it.
My advice to anyone designing an iPhone app: don’t rush into it. Apple has provided all kinds of videos in their iPhone Dev Center about how to design applications. I watched them all, which took a few days. But I wanted to educate myself as much as possible on what makes a great application. If their rules were followed, my application should pass their inspection.
Certainly a lot of techno-jargon exists in the videos. Some are programmer intensive. But being able to grasp basic concepts of programming and programming features was critical. After all, this isn’t a simple “mouse” input. This is finger input. People can not only push on the screen but they can swipe up, swipe down, swipe left, swipe right . . . the accelerometer allows the screen to change if the user tips the application side ways.
As I watched the videos, I had to keep in mind how those technologies could be utilized in the application to enhance the end-user experience.
Remember my self-imposed question: Does this benefit the end user?
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Many moons ago, during the renovation, I was convinced to purchase porcelain tiles which looked like travertine instead of buying the actual travertine.
