Apple announced the iPhone SDK today. I have to say that the demos are very impressive and the “app store” concept is very well thought of — it gets around the carrier and lets Apple become the “deck” for iPhone applications. I am sure that mobile developers would much rather work with Apple than with wireless carriers!

Now, with the $100m iFund bounty, I am sure every mobile developer is learning Object C as we speak and race to develop the coolest iPhone application now. But what kind of applications should you write? What kind of applications can best take advantage of the native SDK capabilities?

Some applications, for example our SXSW Mobile Companion: http://webclip2go.com/sxsw08, is quite sufficient as an iPhone rich web application — the additional hurdle of having to download the native app may not pay off.

Well, an obvious place to search for cool application ideas is the native application landscape for other smartphone devices! You can then adopt / optimize those applications for the iPhone! To see what people have done on the Nokia Symbian platform, and give yourself some inspiration on your big iPhone application, come to my SXSW book reading on this Sat for the Nokia Smartphone Hacks book!

Michael Yuan
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SXSW 08 Mobile Companion
http://webclip2go.com/sxsw08 (iphone simulator)