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Apple gags developers
FRUIT THEMED TOY FLOGGER Apple is employing draconian measures to prevent unauthorised information on its latest gadget from being leaked.
According to sources who out of fear wanted to remain unnamed, select application developers have a shroud of secrecy held around them in order to get access to the device prior to its public launch.
The cappuccino firm is well known for zealously guarding information and these latest details show the firm's utter disdain for and ultimately lack of trust in those who help it rake in the dough from impressionable fanbois.
The signing of non-disclosure agreements is pretty common for any developer who wants to play with hardware prior to launch, however the famously secretive leader of the Apple cult has taken security to new heights with the latest set of unflinching rules.
App developers who want to get their hands on an Ipad have to provide photographic evidence to show that, should Apple bestow a prototype of its latest creation upon them, it will be kept in a room with blacked out windows and be attached to an immovable object. Even after catering for Jobs' obsession with secrecy, the leader has the final say as to who are the chosen few and it seems even starting the World's biggest games publisher wasn't enough for Trip Hawkins to get his grubby mitts on an Ipad.
Although Hawkins left Electronic Arts to form another firm, it's surprising that Steve Jobs wouldn't want to give an Ipad to someone who has considerable juice in the gaming industry. According to analytics firm Flurry its figures, initially released in January and backed up with more recent data, show that games are set to take centre stage on the cut-down tablet device.
Developers who have shelled out to become an Iphone Developers Program member can run an Ipad simulator, allowing them to see how their code runs on the oversized Iphone. The disadvantage of that lies in the inability to see how the user interface can be tailored to the usage pattern of an Ipad user. Unlike the Iphone, the Ipad due to its size would seem to require additional support systems, such as Jobs demonstrated with his knee, in order to use the device.
The Ipad will only be the second device to make use of the App Store, a store that is coming under growing pressure from the Android Marketplace. That market saw a doubling of apps to 30,000 in the last three months and Eric Schmidt's proclaimation at Mobile World Congress that 60,000 Android devices are being shipped daily will increase the attraction for developers to ditch Apple due to its overbearing treatment of them.
A knock-on effect of these measures could be the emergence of a two class app ecosystem with the haves producing higher quality, feature laden applications, while the have nots languish as bottom feeders on the App Store. Not only could Jobs' actions infuriate, alienate and destroy some developers, it could attack the very message Apple tries to convey in its adverts about the quantity of applications available to users.
The need for all this secrecy is at best intriguing. After all, Jobs has already publically shown the device and both videos and pictures are prominently placed on Apple's website, so it's hardly as if fanbois don't already know what to expect. The notion that the select few who have their hands on the device are getting a sneak preview of functionality yet to be released is also unlikely, as the Ipad SDK has been downloadable for some time.
Apple does a good job of promoting applications on the Iphone, both on the television and in its stores. Walking past its flagship church on Regents Street, you see the enormous windows dominated by applications with only a solitary oversized Iphone, presumably mimicking an Ipad, in the centre. The message is clear, you're buying a device that can run all these applications. In stifling developers' attempts to make him money, Jobs is in effect going back on the very message that made the Iphone and the ecosystem surrounding it so successful.
Suited Apple fanbois at Piper Jaffray were as usual rabid in their support of the fruity toymaker. The firm's representative was positively gushing, saying he expects Apple to shift "three to four million" of the devices. Of course that statement, with its built in 25 per cent margin of error, will need to see the modest pre-order figures pick up once the device was released. Potential punters who see past the smoke and mirrors might wait on their purchasing decisions until a particular application is launched, something which is being hampered by Jobs' actions.
Jobs may be forgiven for his relentless demands of security prior to a product's unveiling. Speculation surrounding Apple's launches breeds the generation of unjustified hype but when it comes to mobile devices he should realise that competent rivals exist and are ready to pounce.
Android, Nokia and Blackberry all have similar markets and by placing fewer ridiculous demands on his developers, Jobs should be mindful that their products are what sell Apple's devices, and that they have a choice. µ
Tags: Apple
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can it run Crysis?
Microsoft has copied Apple, and introduced a locked-in app store for Windows Phone 7 Series, where Ballmer gets to say what apps go in, and you're not allowed to buy an app from anyone else.
Then, after copying Apple's ways, Microsoft did something much worse to developers. It told them that all their Windows Mobile apps are obsolete.
I believe the iPhone and iPod touch are both capable of utilizing the App store. If you believe these to be the same device, then describing the iPad as "...the second device to make use of the App Store..." makes sense.
From the point of view of an App, iPhone and iPod touch are very similar, but from the user's point of view they are obviously different: different names, prices, capabilities. You can start by saying one is a phone while the other isn't. Maybe being a phone is of minuscule importance to The Inquirer.
The second issue: Apple does require signed NDAs, as well as measures taken to prevent prototype, beta, or advanced equipment from being seen. This has been true for at least two decades. It may be novel news to Inquirer, or you may have published the same story every year for all I know, but to those who develop products for Apple platforms, it is status quo. The developers I know are very respectful of Apple's wishes in this matter. They have skin in the game. They know the drill.
Apple gets a great deal of market leverage by controlling how it introduces new products, and fully understands how exuberant all of Apple's partners DO get when they get their mitts on some delectable bit of secret information, equipment, or software. So, of course they do more than mention what the rules are early and often. To Apple, a bit of security "theatre" gets the message out and helps everyone's bottom line.
Apple is far from being the only corporation to defend its secrets, but it is one of the few that has done a consistently good job at it.
Finally, you should note that it is entirely possible that Apple gives preferential treatment to Apple-only developers.
It used to be that Apple worked hard to get companies to port to Apple platforms, or develop using Mac and porting to other platforms, but that hasn't been true since 1997.
The ipad prototypes are very hard to come by, and many of us developers will ship ipad products with only the simulator to test on. Not the greatest way to test, but although the simulator is way faster than the real thing so you might get caught on speed, basically it isn't that big of a deal except for the cellphone-based apps which require use of 3G which of course doesn't exist in the simulator. The units will be here in a month so it isn't that big of a deal for the software people.
<quote and be attached to an immovable object. </quote
Why, that would be the iPad itself. Isn't it the oversized iPhone? Am I missing something?
troll ing along!!!
eh, theo didnt mention windows or mac?
& I didnt attempt to answer theos question, thats why my heading was
"2 ways to stop inquirer showing up in Windows"- no mention of googlenews - ya noob
if you think about it,
windows queries the host file before dns
and i said nothing about
/private/etc/hosts
so yeah, score you full points on the iconic ironic stupidity scale,
ah just knew some itard would say it, "autodefend the iflock" is on, turn it off mate
at least you picked up on the sarcastic bit
iPAID is NOT reccomended device, as that device is still in process of being built.
Ahso, another item on Google From Forgein Service , bit of reflection on Non Google world from within Peoples Republic of China.
ipai? BAIDU States United States Is Up to $500/Share, RIGHT NOW.Wow....
@1010011010 (or 666) It's pretty standard that businesses ask partners to sign NDA's actually, and employees, and unfortunately also 'journalists', the ' are to indicate those that agree to sign.
In fact even if you work in a stupid shop selling let's say baby-strollers, you are sometimes asked to sign an NDA and an agreement to not work for a competing shop within x months after leaving your position.
It's a mad mad world.
Not that apple doesn't take it even further and is pretty damn insane with such matters.
- Think about forcing everyone you do business with to fill out NDA's which place them at risk of legal action if they do not do exactly what you tell them to.
- Think about controlling each and every interaction of your customers with your products, and restricting them from outside influences.
- Think about using child labor to build gadgets, then suddenly "auditing" and "discovering" this fact years later, when it looks as though your little scheme is going to be found out.
- Think about using an internal "secret police force" to control the thoughts and actions of your employees; a force who will apparently even go to the extent of encouraging those losing iPhone prototypes to jump out of skyscrapers.
Think "different"...just like Steve Jobs (the guru of peace and happiness).
Ironic comment, for #1 you don't answer the question that he was asking (lame attempt to sound smart, BTW), making your comment about stupidity in #2 funny as hell. FAIL!
Ah, does not matter... based on your sarcastic tone you are probably just lAwrense lAyoff trolling his own retarded blog.
@ theo - Google is your friend. http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/news/thread?tid=720f8e102b817b08&hl=en
Every time I read an article at The Inq that talks about Apples causes Apple fanbois to come rushing in to complain about how wrong the Inq is.
Get a Nexus One and shut up.
NufSed
1/ bit difficult, right click notepad-run as admin, /open/browse to windows/system32/drivers/etc-change view to all files, open hosts, add this
127.0.0.1 inquirer.net
2/ much easier, esp 4 iTards,pack up your computer, all the bits and wires instruction manuals etc, bring it to your place of purchase.
Tell them you are just too blindly stupid to own a computer and that they have to take it back.
Every time I see an article here relating to Apple and or its products it is always written with sarcasm.
-James
your typical prickishness went a bit too far on this one. you usually sound like a paid flamer. now you sound like a paid flamer prick that is having a bad day.
give it a rest bro.
anyone know if there is a way to keep theinquirer.net from showing up in your google news list? i'd be interested in learning how.