Developers learn to play by the rules of Apple’s OS

Apple’s SDK is not really an open application environment like Brew, according to Lewis Ward, research manager of mobile consumer devices at IDC. Brew’s advantages include the ability to develop an app to be sold to several carriers, that in turn get to decide if they want it on their deck and, if so, how to monetize it on their own. What Brew got right is its global approach toward developing and selling applications, as well as its standardized monetization model, so the operator knows how the revenue splits will be, he said.

“If someone develops on Brew, for example, on Verizon Wireless, the carriers have the option to say they don’t want to carry that application, but there’s certainly nothing to preclude them from building the app,” Ward said. “In that sense, the iPhone is obviously very narrowly focused. It’s the way Apple has historically been run.”

A sleek user interface and design is ultimately one of the iPhone’s biggest selling points. Apple specifically engineered the iPhone to do certain things well, perhaps leaving some of the basics like MMS, to the developer community. As a result, the software company is likely reluctant to let others encroach on what it considers its areas of expertise.

Yet this hesitation is not shared by many other OSs. While Qualcomm runs quality assurance testing of apps developed for Brew, it is ultimately up to the operator to decide whether or not it gets carried. There is no veto power from Qualcomm or the carrier, Ward said – the market decides. Symbian, on the other hand, lacks a central distribution platform for its content, so apps can be offered by any developer through their own Web portal. It remains to be seen how Google and Linux will run their OSs, Android and LiMo, respectively.

“On LiMo and Android, I think it will be much closer to the Brew model – open for anyone to develop, but there will be basic testing [and quality assurance], and then operators will decide if they want the app,” Ward said in an email interview. “And there may be ways they can disable certain apps from working on devices they bring to market on Android - a ‘soft’ veto, if you will. For example, a VoIP app from Vonage may not work well on an Android phone from T-Mobile or Verizon because the MNO has selected certain parameters for the devices they're selling in their stores with a contract, etc. But this remains to be seen.”