On Sep 19, 5:53*pm, Bruce Hoult wrote:
On Sep 20, 3:34*am, Michael Ash wrote:

Bruce Hoult wrote:
The main problem is the risk. It *shouldn't* apply to an aviation
application, but the only way to really find out is to actually build the
app, submit it, and see if they let it through. If they don't, that's a
lot of work potentially lost.

Not lost. *If you make your plans based on surviving using
distribution independent of Apple then you can submit to the AppStore
and see what happens. *If you get in then bonus.

The PodCaster guys are reportedly doing brisk business despite not
being in the AppStore.

The Podcaster guys sell a ~$10 application that Apple can apparently
turn off at any time. The logic why they don't just submit through the
iTunes store is questionable. This is not just an issue if you want to
distribute through the store, it's a base restriction in the SDK.
Anybody wanting to put real effort into doing this is going to want to
sort this out before building the application. Then it's a closed
system and you are always pretty much at Apple's mercy. Which I assume
Bruce is used to thinking about - since if his product is doing Java
compilation then unless you've got a deal with Apple that software is
going to run up against the "other executable code"/interpreted
languages restriction in the SDK agreement...

....Just to hammer this to death I disagree that the comment that the
ecosystem of distributing apps for the iPhone is like other mobile
device. The iPhone is designed to be a closed system. But hey it's a
very pretty closed system. The App store infrastructure is nice for
low margin micro-applications (and why others like Microsoft are
running to catch up) but has more issues for serious applications.
Like the software vendors inability to very rapidly patch things,
Apple being able to make fairly arbitrary decisions, etc. etc.

But again, I'd claim there are practical restrictions today that
probably are showstoppers for a serious application... no I/O over
serial port, bluetooth or USB, no CF/SD card, no file system/file
UI, ... Of all these I'd hope that Apple would add a serial profile to
bluetooth and a (limited) filesystem like UI in future.


Darryl