iPhone, Quality, Content and Design.

As stated in the iPhoneSDK Keynote, Apple will hold final say as to what third party applications end up on the iPhone, through iTunes.  While not specifically published or stated, this position seems to give the inference that there will be certain Quality, Content, and Design standards.  Given this, there must also be a well designed process to inspect applications for adherence to this standard.

This is an area where casual developers and professional developers often take different paths.  Most professional development efforts value a well developed SDLC, where good requirements and quality assurance practices are seen as tools to developing stable well functioning software.  To the casual developer the value of these processes are often too expensive, from a time perspective, and frequently take a lower priority.

Many have commented about the approach that Apple is taking here and even referred to it as a "closed" system.  Rich Miner, (Group manager of Wireless Platforms at Google) recently gave a talk (link to video) about the challenges to mobile software development, and the impact open source initiatives have had in this space.  In this presentation Rich mentions that even the Google "open source" mobile initiative (Android) will have some detailed quality and design requirements.

As the mobile development community continues to change, only time will tell what traditional software development practices will be a best fit.  Agile, practices appear to be leading the efforts for today and may still offer the best blend of flexibility and process for a platform that seems destined for great things.  

-Robert Zullo

iPhone Crash Files tid bit.

Today we received a report from a client that may be of interest to many who develop for the iPhone platform. Crash logs can be critical in debugging and testing the behavior of software and systems. The file location you see below contains a number of files that are critical to identifying crashes in the iPhone system and software. Further analysis is underway and we welcome others to add their comments to this blog.


/Users/your user name/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/your iphone name/

and

/Users/your user name/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/your iphone name/Baseband

FYI

Enterprise Applications Support and 3G = International Reach

With the announcement from Walt Mossberg that the next iPhone will be 3G the potential impact of this unique crossover entity might just be moving towards a Corporate International audience.  

Arguments can be made that iPhone is already a corporate entity in the international market but as most non-US readers know, the limitation of not having 3G is a real concern on the international scene.  

Let's face it 768k is only called "broadband" in the US.  Most international markets reserve the term broadband for much higher data transfer rates.  While Walt refers to content and marketing angles as his main points, the rub with enterprise I.T. managers becomes what to do if this 3G option is now part of the iPhone platform.  While dismissing the iPhone is a hard thing to do even today, 3G support would really make this naysayers look more like pundits.  

Walt references a 60 day timeline so time will tell, but should Apple decide to take that angle with the iPhone, it's clearly added another threat to the existing Mobile market.