The new iPhone is receiving near-universal praise from tech circles, and there’s plenty of reasons why. It’s powerful, cheaper, and cooler than anything out there. The original iPhone reports customer satisfaction that is off the charts, and the next gen iPhone is even faster. Add to this a built-in iPhone store combined with the iPhone’s upcoming availability in far more markets than it’s in now, and it seems as though Google Android developers would be jumping ship, if only for their own good.

Not so fast. As Vasanth Sridharan reports in Silicon Alley Insider, there are a few very important reasons why Android developers are hesitant to make the leap.

First of all, Android is done in Java while the iPhone done in Objective-C. A lot of the current Android developers don’t know Objective-C and don’t want to learn it. And, as Sridharan reports, a lot of developers who are familiar with Objective-C don’t like it.

Second, the old Apple problem: they strictly control what apps will be available for the iPhone, while Android developers can create whatever they want. iPhone is Disney while Android is Penthouse–anything goes. Android developers can also mess with the basic design of the phone, while Apple will keep their normal interface intact.

Third, and perhaps most convincing, Google is pumping a lot of money in the direction of developers. The Android Developers Challenge is giving away $10 million to developers who create promising apps, and that’s an awfully big carrot to dangle out in front of designers. Besides, if you’ve been working with Android all of this time, knowing the millions are still on the table, why would you go back now? In spite of iPhone’s obvious advantages, there is still more than $8 million in Google cash waiting to be snapped up by diligent developers.

Will this be enough to help Android catch up to Apple enough to make it a fair fight? The new iPhone looks like a destroyer of worlds, and it’s coming out in a month, whereas nobody has an Android phone right now. However, if Android can emerge on the scene with cool apps and a reasonable price, they have a shot–but only if designers produce handsets that can match the iPhone’s usability. A touchscreen handset with a keypad, somewhat like Samsung’s semi-maligned Glyde, may convert Blackberry users. But there’s a lot of catching up to do, and Apple is in the position of power right now, so they can take the long view and adjust accordingly.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 1:51 pmand is filed under Business, Technology, Web Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.