As I mentioned a few days ago, everyone can expect big things from the release of Apple’s Software Development Kit (SDK) for the iPhone. Well, perhaps the word big was lost on some of you.
Apple is reporting that over 100,000 developers have downloaded the iPhone and iPod Touch SDK beta. In four days. Four. And that number is only going to get bigger when the Apps Store opens later this year. If it takes only two weeks to make a program, iPhone owners are going to be flooded with games and applications and stuff they don’t even want or need.
My guess is there are two major factors drawing developers to download the SDK software. The first is Apple’s ease of use claim. If I’m Joe Developer, and I know a little about programming I can make a game on the iPhone and get it out to millions of people in a snap. Plus, people who have iPhones like to tinker with them, so it’s a chance for people to mess around under the hood fairly easily.
The second is Apple’s crazy payout scale where 70% of the green goes to developers while apple retains only 30%. So that same Joe Developer can not only mess around and make a game, but if he can also make a killing if it catches on.
As an admitted ‘game play over graphics’ gamer there are just loads of possibilities for innovative intuitive games. The touch screen plus accelerometer controls leave endless possibilities for developers.
I have a feeling that the larger companies, the Capcoms and the UbiSofts, will wait for that one hit, that stand out game that everyone has on their iPhone before they jump in. But they will jump in. It was Geometry Wars on that drew the attention of the bigger companies to XBLA, who knows what it will be for the iPhone.
I’ll just have to wait patiently until that little button appears on my iPhone and then I will move to a downloading frenzy. Stay tuned for my feature "How spend your savings account on meaningless apps."
[via QJ.net]
