Opportunities: Compared to other platforms, this is a relatively low-cost way for resellers to step into development waters. Whether it’s to extend an existing customer application to the iPhone or iPad or create an app to solve a business problem, this is a fairly low-risk way of taking aim at a potentially high-reward market.
Challenges: Before an app is placed in the App Store, Apple puts it through its notoriously rigorous approval system. And while joining the program is a low-cost, hassle- free process, developing apps that extend an enterprise’s IT investment to the edge of the network will include, perhaps, more nontechnical issues than technical ones.
Differentiation: Apple’s developer program allows for software to be written across desktop, notebook, tablet and smartphone platforms — making Apple the only technology vendor with that degree of reach in the client stack. HP is working toward that same breadth of reach as it readies its WebOS-based tablets for launch but that hadn’t happened as of this writing.
Platform: Android
The Android community now provides the Android SDK R11 for Windows, Mac and Linux development environments — a significant advantage over Apple. In addition, several revs of the Android SDK, starting with the Android 2.1 platform and up
to Android 3.1 (which is also optimised for tablets) are available for download for free. There are also built-in economies on the Android platform for developers, including the Android Native Development Tools. These allow code writers to build applications using C and C++; apps also run in a virtual machine (the Dalvik Virtual Machine). This means that big components are repurposed between apps as a development shortcut.
Opportunities: Android and all the code is open source, and its developer tools and kits are free of charge. That means that with the right amount of background in programming, resellers will not need much capital investment to jump in and start writing apps for the Android platform.
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