How the iPhone SDK is reshaping mobile application development

Eugene Signorini, Andrew Jaquith, and I wrote a Yankee Group Decision Note analyzing the Apple iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) announcement last week; clients will probably see it in our published research sometime next week. But despite that note being more than 2,000 words, I'm still finding new insights from other writers on the topic. Today's harvest includes some commentary from Michael Mace, who declares that Apple gets it right. Michael's been on my mobile Web Sites interview list because he's an authority on many aspects of the mobile market and business strategy, and I think his comments on the intersection of mobile apps and the iPhone are particularly interesting:

I think it's likely that web apps will eventually displace most native mobile apps, because the addressable market will be so much larger. But eventually can take a long time, and if anyone can buck the trend it'll be Apple. They have created by far the best overall proposition for mobile developers on any platform in the US or Europe, and I hope they'll do very well for a long time.

Apple is challenging the rest of the mobile industry to compete on its terms. It will be very interesting to see how the other mobile vendors react, Nokia and Microsoft in particular. Nokia seems to be focused on a strategic positioning activity around seeing who can collect the most runtimes, while Apple is solving real developer and user problems. It's a striking contrast.

Anywhere apps get a choice of development tools

Today, I'm thinking about two news items this week as I am researching mobile Web site development for my upcoming report:

• The Apple announcement that it will release its iPhone SDK and roadmap on March 6, and
• A blog post by Michael Mace writing the obituary of native mobile phone apps called Mobile applications, RIP

These two news items reflect the two camps I've talked to about Mobile Web sites. One camp believes that native mobile applications are the only way to get the responsiveness and integration needed for a great mobile experience. In the other camp, though, are a large group of people who believe that the mobile Web will evolve to capture the lion's share of mobile user attention, just as it has on the desktop.

Just like with desktop and laptop computers, I don't think mobile app development will ever be a completely "either-or" proposition; I think we'll see Web AND native app development. For example, if you want to edit photos you've loaded on our laptop, you can edit them either using a desktop app like iPhoto or Photoshop (assuming you have them installed), or you can edit them online using Snipshot.com, Picnik.com, fotoflexer.com and a host of others (assuming you have enough online access available). So why would we expect Anywhere mobile applications to be any different? Some applications will require dedicated native software, others will make more sense on the Web. Both approaches work.

Of course, Apple has already figured this out. Last year, it touted using Web technology to develop iPhone apps. This year, they're announcing the native iPhone SDK. Developers will get to choose which approach meets their customers' Anywhere needs best. The open question is which approach will generate the most excitement and enthusiasm for the platform. And while native apps have always held the edge in prior platforms like Palm and RIM devices, those platforms didn't boast browsers that were as a capable as the iPhone's. Only time will tell which tools developers will choose as their favorites, but at least developers will have the choice.

Mobile ESPN browsers eclipse PC users and your favorite mobile Web sites

One of the pieces of research I'm just starting is a report on mobile Web sites. In the course of my research, I came up on this piece of news from January:

The biggest upset of this football season may have been Appalachian State University's victory over Michigan. But for the mobile-marketing industry, it came the day ESPN had more visits to the NFL content on its mobile Web site than it did to the same area on its PC site.

[From More football fans hit ESPN's mobile site than its PC pages - RCR Wireless News]

I think everyone now accepts that the number of global mobile phones now easily eclipse the number of Internet users in the world (2.7 billion phones versus 1.1 billion Internet users as of 2006). But many still think that's all about voice communication, not the Internet. But with the advent of first-class Internet Web browsers on platforms like the iPhone, Nokia's S60 series, and others, we're just beginning to see the impact of the mobile Web. My prediction: it's going to be even bigger than the PC Web. And the ESPN watershed moment noted above is just the start.

So here's a question for readers that would help me with my research: What's your favorite mobile Web site? Ideally, it would be a business site (I am, after all, director of Enterprise software, not consumer), but even if your favs are consumer sites, I'd love to hear about them. Leave a comment below, and in the process, tell me what mobile phone browser you are using to access that site. I'll start the ball rolling by saying my favorites on my Apple iPhone are Facebook (amazing functionality for a mobile site), Bank of America (bofa.com), and FedEx (fedex.com -- they always embrace new technologies quickly). What are yours?

Apple and Opera give the mobile Web experience a boost

My iPhone and I have become inseparable as I wander around the Anywhere world. Well, today, Apple decided to up the iPhone ante by introducing $499 16 GByte iPhones and 32 Gbyte iPod touches. Add to that the fact that Opera Software ASA has just started previewing its new Opera Mobile 9.5 Web browser in time for the 3GSM conference in Barcelona next week, and we can see that the lines between the mobile Web and the desktop Web are starting to blur. Not so coincidentally, that's one of the themes of the research I'll be doing over the next year at Yankee Group. My sense is that it's going to become a hot and controversial topic.