Matt King's Blog!

Before the iPhone came out there was the announcement: the official SDK to make applications on the iPhone was HTML and Javascript, displayed in a web browser. I read a lot of comments complaining about that, programmers that wanted real hooks into the iPhone system. For instance, you can’t access the phone’s address book, voice mail, or photos with a web browser.

But I think Apple made a smart move. Making a web browser the official software platform allowed many more applications to be developed in a really short amount of time, since a lot more people can make web apps than can create native applications for OS X. And since a web browser is already the defacto communications conductor on the Internet, integrating the phone with information on the Internet is already done.

Why do I love developing for the iPhone?

• I get a fixed screen size. It’s almost like designing for print again. I get 320×480 to work with on my web app, and I can bet that won’t change for quite a long time. No more designing to work within a range of resolutions, I know my app will fit in the screen as I intended. It also forces me to be creative with the space I have, which is a refreshing coming from developing for desktop browsers.
• I only have to code for one browser. Actually, the best part is I don’t have to code for Internet Explorer. I know my site will render exactly as I wanted it to when I originally made it. The CSS will render predictably, and the Javascript will work like I planned. Also, Safari on the iPhone is a full-fledged browser that can do just about everything a desktop browser can do, not some crippled smartphone browser.
• It makes me think differently about user interfaces. The only time I’ve developed for a touch screen was for a small kiosk project that lived in a museum. Most people don’t have the opportunity to develop a site that will be used with your fingers. It changes your perspective on designing web applications when you don’t have the typical mouse and keyboard setup. It gave me ideas and inspiration to take with me back to the desktop world.
• It opens up a whole new range of applications. Ideas that were pretty good on the desktop are now more useful than ever. Location-based searching and apps like to-do lists and mileage logs make a lot more sense when the user can have it with them all the time, and not tied down to a desktop.

I have a feeling Apple will eventually open up the iPhone to allow developers to create native applications, but the web browser based SDK will probably stay the most popular. If I could develop iPhone web apps exclusively, I would. It would be so much more fun.