Katie Marsal
Starting Thursday, iPhone app developers will have no choice but to test against iPhone OS 3.0 if they want to guarantee their places in the App Store, and have been warned their existing apps may be pulled if support breaks.
"If your app submission is not compatible with iPhone OS 3.0, it will not be approved," the message reads. "After iPhone OS 3.0 becomes available to customers, any app that is incompatible with iPhone OS 3.0 may be removed from the App Store."
Apple doesn't indicate whether submissions will have to be complied using the 3.0 version of the iPhone software developer kit or if it only requires that apps be tested using a 3.0 emulator or device.
The requirement illustrates, for the first time, Apple's approach to major mobile OS updates for third-party developers. At its iPhone OS 3.0 preview event, Apple had said it would greatly expand the number of APIs for developers to use but didn't say how well it expected 2.0 apps to carry over with all the changes made to the platform; the new update indicates that Apple intends to maintain compatibility but that it also expects everyone to be on the same footing by the time the public can upgrade to 3.0. Apple portrays it less as a request of its own and more as a reality of the market, where many will apply the update as quickly as possible and expect their current apps to run.
"Millions of iPhone and iPod touch customers will move to iPhone OS 3.0 this summer," the company reminds developers.
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46 Comments
This is kind of a non-story, isn't it?
The notice says that existing apps "should" work with 3.0, but they just want you to test it to make sure. I would be very surprise if Apple broke any of the 2.x API's with the 3.0 version. It seems that they usually just add classes and methods in these updates.
It also seems that if you have an existing app, you will be OK until the 3.0 software is released. If you hadn't tested and for some strange reason your app broke in the 2->3 transition, you would THEN be SOL.
Kind of a dramatic headline and shrill story for such an ordinary policy.
I'd like to get in before all the ranting and cries of "Apple is evil!" just to say that this seems eminently reasonable to me.
The main problem I have is that testing an app on hardware requires having 3.0 on your iPhone/iPod Touch. Most "little guys" don't have multiple units lying around for testing, since Apple has said not to install the beta firmware on your primary device. This leads me to believe that the firmware needs to come out sooner rather than later, because it puts a developer in limbo if they want to test their apps for 3.0, but want to keep a stable iPhone OS on their phone for typical usage.
This is kind of a non-story, isn't it?
The notice says that existing apps "should" work with 3.0, but they just want you to test it to make sure. I would be very surprise if Apple broke any of the 2.x API's with the 3.0 version. It seems that they usually just add classes and methods in these updates.
It also seems that if you have an existing app, you will be OK until the 3.0 software is released. If you hadn't tested and for some strange reason your app broke in the 2->3 transition, you would THEN be SOL.
Kind of a dramatic headline and shrill story for such an ordinary policy.
They're just echoing a message Apple sent out to registered developers today.
And while Apple has tried not to break anything, there's always hidden assumptions somewhere in the code that may change. And if the software was buggy but just happened to work because of some peculiarity of 2.x it could easily break in 3.x.
Anyway, I applaud any attempt Apple makes to make things more explicit.
The main problem I have is that testing an app on hardware requires having 3.0 on your iPhone/iPod Touch. Most "little guys" don't have multiple units lying around for testing, since Apple has said not to install the beta firmware on your primary device. This leads me to believe that the firmware needs to come out sooner rather than later, because it puts a developer in limbo if they want to test their apps for 3.0, but want to keep a stable iPhone OS on their phone for typical usage.
I don't get how if you are building software you did not factor in OS upgrades into your plan. Not to sound mean, but this problem is going to reoccur on a regular basis. You need to plan an extra device into your development budget. The user community will eat you alive if on the day of Apple's release of 3.0 the software you built fails because you were trying to save a couple hundred bucks and never tested against 3.0.