Silicon Valley Musings

Robert writes “..it’s dramatically easier to write applications for a runtime-compiler system like Java or .NET.”

To build a reasonable user experience on the iPhone, developers will need libraries to leverage the native iPhone UI components including the new, patented gesture information, access to the local phone book, the ability to record and play voice and other media, WiFi and Bluetooth synchronization, etc.

Apple would need to retrofit Java’s standard libraries for the iPhone as well as create and extend them to expose the iPhone unique features. To what end?

It is in Apple’s and its customers’ best interest to get motivated developers to use Apple’s development tools. The result would be better-integrated iPhone applications and a new generation of programmers that can write native applications for Mac OS X platform.

If your application doesn’t need this level of integration, build a Web-based application using LAMP and Javascript.