Marco.org

I’m : a programmer, writer, podcaster, geek, and coffee enthusiast.

Why don’t I leave iPhone development?

My WWDC App Store post has received a lot of traffic over the last day, and many readers have emailed or commented a response to the effect of “Why don’t you leave iPhone development and switch to [Android/Pre/RIM/other]?”

It’s simple, really: I believe iPhone is the best mobile platform out there by far, as both a user and a developer.

I’m a huge fan of Apple and almost everything they make because they have an incredibly effective design process and release strategy that facilitates the creation of consistently great products. Even when they screw up, the magnitude is usually far lower than with other software companies: I’d rather use Apple’s worst than Microsoft’s best.

I won’t develop for other mobile platforms because I’m not interested in using them. I can’t develop great software for a platform I don’t use.

iPhone OS, as at platform, is incredibly attractive to developers for nearly every reason, and Apple has done an incredibly good job with it. The lack of other serious flaws disproportionally focuses the complaints on the few that remain, and the largest one to many developers, myself included, is the current app review system.

App review isn’t inherently a flawed concept — the current system just has some problems. Apple has fixed many of the problems we’ve had so far, but this is the one glaring exception that, despite what may be happening behind the scenes, appears to the public as if it needs the most help and is receiving the least attention from Apple.

I think, and hope, that I’m wrong about that and that all of this silliness will soon be in the past.