I’ve been developing for the iPhone for a while now and it’s a great development platform, I make a lot of money every month from it. For anyone involved in mobile software, there are a small series of choices that have to be made as to where expansion is going to be:
- Windows Phone
- Android
- iPhone
Android has been out for a while, and it was on my list of things to expand to. Not anymore. Android sucked on launch and up until now, it still sucks. The problem with Android is that Google has no idea how to make this kind of software. They have done a number of things wrong that make it unattractive for me as a developer
- Google does not care about me. Google does not give me any mode of getting in contact with them. With both Apple and Microsoft, I have access to their developers
- Google does not seem to want anyone to make money on their platform. They just put their platform out there, and say : do what you want with it. There is no attempt to actually make people make money
- Android as a user device is horrible. It’s jerky, slow you have random flashes, and it’s totally uninnovative compared to the iPhone. There is absolutely nothing new there.
Windows Phone
Take a look at Windows Phone. Scroll down to the first video. This operating system is new, completely fresh and allows you to communicate with the users in ways we’ve not seen before. It’s “smooth”, that difficult-to-explain quality, which is what most users want in their phones.
The state of software at the moment is like an ocean. Companies have realised that software is going multi-platform very quickly, seeing as there are now diverse mobile OSes to add to big three desktop OSes. All the smaller companies are like boats that have quickly changed their direction and are heading in that direction now. Microsoft is like a cruise ship that is slow in changing direction, but once it does, it will fire up the massive engines and forge past all that started earlier. Don’t think so? Let’s look at the future of software – it involves multi-touch, games that involve more than a push button controller, but can react based of body movements, 3D TV & Video (like Avatar), integration of internet with TV, mobile devices and cloud integration between all your devices, social integration using location based services, status information and profile info, social games etc.
Making a nicer MP3 player is great, but this is not the real change that we are quickly approaching. The real difference will come from the technology above, and this is complicated stuff. And Microsoft has the engineering talent already working on a lot of this, and at far advanced stages. And they have the social information also with their facebook, hotmail, msn networks.
And most importantly, they are using a unified programming platform for all of this. Microsoft is .NETing everything. There is a huge number of programmers who are learning .NET and all of those programmers are going to be able to program for the Windows Phone, XBox, Windows 7 and for the Web using their favorite programming language, but with the same API and the same backend.
Microsoft focuses on the developers because each developer invites people to the platform. Every developer is like a mini-hub that will reach at least 50 other people on average, and if you focus on the developers, you can multiply your end-user reach by 50.
Take a look at all the talent as regards multi-touch, gesture control, etc. A large number of them are working at Microsoft.
Some short-sighted people are saying that Microsoft is dead, and some are even explain “how” it died. That’s just the silliest thing ever. Microsoft is working on the things that are what the future of software is going to be, and with the huge amount of cash it has and the talent it has acquired, it’s going to remaining the dominant force in software.
I’m betting on the Windows Phone because
- Microsoft has seen what Apple and others have done, and have made something along the same line, but daring and new. They are not afraid to innovate (like Google was)
- Microsoft is investing in the right type of future oriented technologies
- Microsoft has a huge marketing and development budget to push anything they want
- Microsoft has integrated its programming languages across all platforms, implying a huge number of devs will program for their platforms
But most important to me is that
- Microsoft cares for me as a developer, and they care that I also make money
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good luck boy, i won’t use your app then. or are you microsoft marketing team?
Hey Raiden’s Realm. Who says this is a developer or a “paid actor” lol *Raises hand and waves it violently in the air*
I don’t buy the ‘Android as a user device is horrible…’ comment at all.I’m not a developer so can’t realistically argue with you on the other points, but I own a Nexus One and am extremely happy with it.Sure, it’s the top-of-the-range current phone and others are slower, have a worse screen etc, but the fact that the OS is open means that different companies will make different handsets, some far better than others.Yes, Apple’s ‘it will work no matter what’ approach clearly appeals to consumers, but I don’t think that only the geeks of the world want an Android phone.If you think developing your software for the windows mobile platform is going to make you more money, that’s fine, but to say in absolute terms that the Android experience is absolutely terrible without even noting that there are some good reasons to like it makes you sound like a stooge for Microsoft.
You are a developer for what?microsoft lol or are you part of the marketing team. Btw I am using linux to post this and I am enjoying the non-blue screen of deathness. XD
Nice to see the fanboi’s and haters coming out in force. No surprise there – apple fanboi’s (even tho I’m one) are usually about as even-handed as BNP members.I came to about the same conclusion yesterday: http://www.fastchicken.co.nz/index.php/2010/03/18/windows-phone-7-series-pred…going to try the SDK in anger on the weekend (assuming I make time) – we’ll see after some real world use
Also historically Microsoft has always been very good in taking market from an incumbent by extending its initial market.That’s what they are trying to do with the OS Phone market.
must be joking – android is going to destroy all in its way – resistance is futile.
This post provides no factual data to back up the claims you are making. Please provide sources to the information and statistics you speak of.
You are wron man. Back up your claim with real data as nFrindeJP says …
Hey Max, you know you are wrong on some points here right? Goole is the most innovative Company out there, that been said, microsoft phones are not phones for the casual user, they are not phones peoples can brag with, they are phones, that the casual blackberry user use to buy, they are not cool and never are they going to be cool, it’s just a brand image, microsoft is not cool, microsoft is serious and they make stuff you have to buy , they make stuff you need for your work, so the casual user will associate the name microsoft with word, excel, windows, and the last thing it’d like to associate with his phone is Microsoft. iPhoen is cool, peoples associate iphones, and apple with coolness, I’m cool, I have an iphone….but, you better stick on Android, google innovation pace is unbeatable, they’re just too good….now, well, users surely don’t care if a software is open source, but they care about how their phones work, how it looks, how cool it is, and guess who cares about that too:….exactly, the phones manufacturers(sonyericsson, LG, samsung, Nokia…….etc), have you seen the new Sonyericsson android phone? trash your iphone! go pick it……now regarding the users, the market to conquer is the market of peoples using those phones today, average nokia, sonyericsson, etc… users, guess wich Brand they will stick with if they find out: hey, Nokia just has a phone that can do anything an iphone does, and I can use it as I want, and I was always loving my nokia till day….yup, you got it. The way to go: Android. If you want to make money with Windows mobile softwares, build some softwares and make them very very expensive, the target market of microsoft phones users has the money to buy it, but you won’t make a bunch load of money there, those guy don’t download 0,99 cents apps everyday, teenagers don’t use those phones, it’s just uncool, and believe me, they couldn’t care less about the innovations microsoft put in there, they indeed just want the phone to impress their friends as you said.Now back to Google, do you know why google is so smart regarding the phone market? They know they don’t know how to build phones, but they can build softwares, and with the many talents out there who can build softwares, they just have a free pool of developpers, who can change things as they want, and those who can build really nice phones will use the software to build their own phones, at the end of the day, you have a bunch of new manufacturers who just need to know how to design and build a phone, what brings google a lot of money too. Sure, the support is not “perfect” like microsoft support, but hey windows 7 mobile is not open source, so they better support you, Android is open source. As peoples say in my country , “You Can’t Have The Butter And The Money” , That’s Android.
What about Palm? They created a completely new take on things and have good developer support. Did you look at their platform?
Sheesh! What interesting tripe. As a long time user of Windows Mobile phones I bought a Palm Pre last August. The reason? It has a damned good, interesting, standards based development model and support for developers. And then I found out that WebOS was dynamite operating system. I only wish Android was as good.
Microsoft is only paying lip service right now because they are hungry. If the platform actually takes off, good luck getting to talk to the dev team, they’ll be too worried about the big fish to talk to the small fish.
Anyone else notice Palm’s stock price drop off a cliff today? equivalent of apple dropping $50 in one day…. or google down by $125…Sorry, tried a Pre. Thought it was _awful_ UX.
Max,Wow, looks like you hit some nerves here…It has always been clear to me as a developer, that Microsoft wants to give me the best tools to help me succeed.
Max, I enjoy your posts, but I find you way of base with your comments on Android. It’s a great platform and the rate of improvement of the devices and OS is impressive.
Max,No matter if Windows phone is more developers friendly than Android, I think there are both good platforms with different business potentials.Actually, I appreciate your intro dealing with the fact that developers need to do the choice to develop on one platform and have to make money.The 2010 mobile development is not a “one platform development choice”. The cross platform development aspect is the most sexy thing for mobile developers.I work for a french company providing a tool for Flex developers, called ELIPS Studio, which allows to code your app in Flex and build into native code for different platforms like Iphone, Android, Windows Mobile or Symbian.Our beta users are happy with the possibility to maximize the ROI of their work in targeting 4 platforms, app stores with one development.The aim for a developer being to monetize as much as possible his work.
Let’s not forget, Apple didn’t have an SDK to begin with. Developers pleaded for it. I’m sure we’ll find Android adapting as well.As far as phone hardware, I’ve found some phones are much better than others. This is a real drag for Google but, Anrdoid phones are still better than many of the alternatives.
Good luck everybody! – I will come back again. Are you on facebook or twitter? Will like to follow you.
Thanks