Gameloft — and other developers according to Gameloft — are cutting back on development for Google’s Android platform due to the “weakness” of the Android Market. According to Reuters, Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefort said:
We have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like … many others. [The Android Market] is not as neatly done as on the iPhone. Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue.”
Ouch. Harsh words. Meanwhile, with iPhone generating 13% of Gameloft’s revenue (400 times more than Android), we’ll no doubt see plenty more on the iTunes App Store.
While we’ve heard developers and pundits talk about the business advantage of the iPhone before, and while Android’s numbers may be rising and soon, in the short term the bigger houses like Gameloft might just stick with where the money is.
TomTom has released a rather significant update to their $99 iPhone Turn-by-Turn GPS application [iTunes Link]. It seems as if they had second thoughts about omitting first generation iPhone 2G (and iPod touches) support in the TomTom car kit. It was only last month that TomTom officially stated the kit would not enable GPS with the original iPhone or iPod touch. My how quickly things change, perhaps the release of the free Google Navigation application had something to do with it…
If anyone still rocking the first generation iPhone or a new iPod touch and try TomTom out, let us know how it goes!
After a long time in limbo, fan favorite desktop Instant Messenger (IM) client Trillian [$4.99 - iTunes link] has finally (finally!) arrived for iPhone and iPod touch.
Features include AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk, tabbed chat windows, clean contact lists, killer connection management, instant cross-device sync (via Astra server), simultaneous sign-in, and “intelligent” push notification.
Confession: I’ve been podcasting, now I’m editing, so I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but if you’re giving it a go, please let us know your favorite features, pros and cons, and just in general — what you think!
Instapaper and Tumblr developer Marco Arment riffs on the NYT’s article on Palm webOS’ trouble wooing developers, and it’s predictably good stuff.
His major point is that with its huge install base (which topped 50 million iPhones and iPod touches months ago), it makes more financial sense to develop for Apple’s platform, rather than Google’s Android or Palm’s webOS which might have on 5% to 10% as many devices on the market.
Giving developers an app store is the easy part. The hard part is bringing us enough customers. The iPhone is so good that it built up a huge installed base without any third-party apps, but no Android or webOS devices can say that yet.
Arment points out that the iPod touch makes a huge difference as well, giving developers a similar device to work on without the need for an expensive cell phone contract. He also echoes Fake Steve’s comments on different hardware complicating development, though he thinks if Android popularity continues to grow, the platform might justify the investment one day.
Saw these last night while watching the show that used to be House MD, new Apple iPhone “App for That” commercials focusing on Gift and Song. Of course, the tag line has been bumped from 75,000 to 100,000, and they continue with “apps for just about anything”, which is likely legal cover in case “app for that” confused someone into suing over that still-missing Apple Glass Trackpad app…
Again, Apple is sticking to apps to sell iPhones, and showing off some great variety, and killer good looks while doing so. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, or time for Apple advertising to switch it up?
For those of us looking for that pinnacle action RPG for the iPhone, Ravensword: The Fallen King [$6.99 - iTunes]has been released. This game looks absolutely fantastic! I have only played this game for a few minutes (enough to leave the inn and wander the town. I will have a more thorough update later) but the controls are great and there are lots of options to tweak the performance based on your hardware.
The character and environment detail is some of the best I have seen on the iPhone. The game is similar to other games such as Oblivion in this genre. There are NPCs to interact with and several weapons and items to use. There has not been a game quite like this so far on the iPhone, so it will be exciting to see its reception in the App Store. I for one, know what I will be playing this weekend!
Call of Duty is a huge franchise, and what better way to expand that franchise then to unleash it, World of War style, on the iPhone and iPod touch — and add Zombies. Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies [$9.99 - iTunes link] contains only one map right now, “Nacht der Untoten” (Night of the undead) but allows 4 player multiplay via WiFi and over the internet, or 2 over Bluetooth. There are three control schemes, achievements, leader-boards, and the promise of in-app purchases (map expansions?) later.
So, Call of Duty fans and Zombie fanatics, how’re you liking your first iPhone experience?
MacRumors has heard from multiple sources that Apple is planning to release a (presumably free) Concierge app for the iPhone and iPod touch that would:
…provide many of the same functions available through the company’s retail store online reservations system, allowing customers to schedule Genius Bar and One to One appointments from their mobile devices. Sources have also indicated that the application will allow users to keep tabs on their premium membership subscriptions offered by the company.
Since the current option is via the web (screen shot above), it sounds good to us. If wanted to schedule service or training for your iPhone, Mac, or other Apple gear, would you use it?
Speaking of Storm8, Unity-engine code, private API, and Gruber, A recent Twitter exchange between him shows just how seriously all of this is now being taken by the App Store:
Hockenberry: Hearing lots of reports about apps getting rejected due to private API usage. Maybe now you’ll believe me when I say it’s a bad idea…
Gruber: Yup: Apple recently started running apps through a static analysis tool to look for private API calls.
Google set off some of the private API discussion when they implemented them as part of the Google Mobile app (though it’s our understanding those API were later made public). Generally, private or unpublished API are kept that way because Apple (or whichever platform maker is supplying the APIs) hasn’t finished working on them, are planning changes, or is otherwise reserving their use — if 3rd parties implement them anyway, any future OS update can break them and cause problems for end users. Public API, on the other hand, are supported and intended to let developers do their thing without worrying about platform-level changes wrecking their apps.
