I retired from personal blogging in July 2008 but you can find me over at blog.xero.com
Follow @roddrury
Adding an iPhone interface to Xero obviously makes a lot of sense. It’s a web application but optimized for iPhone delivery. It’s not the full Xero application so we want to hear what scenario’s will be useful.
As m.xero.com is a web interface, what we have done requires a connection. Probably OK for most scenarios but there are some ocaasions where it would be useful to have a native iPhone application. Expense claims would be a good example.
However the way that Apple are controlling the distribution of iPhone applications, my understanding is that we cannot just put up an iPhone expense management application for our customers to download. We have to put it up through the store.
This is fine for iPhone only applications.
As a SaaS offering we already have a billing link with our customers. We may not want to charge extra for an iPhone application. We’d just want our customers to download something from our website to improve their experience.
Does anyone know how Apple is planning to handle these partial iPhone applications that extend other services that not primarily based on the iPhone?
blog
Apple make it quite clear there is *No Charge* for free applications that are distributed via App Store. see Pt 3. Distribute on App store http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program/details.html
The main concern of Apple is ensuring that native applications play nice on the iPhone platform. By play nice this means conform within reason to the iPhone phone UX, is easily installed/uninstalled and in particular conserves battery life. App Store allows Apple to regulate the full demand+supply side dynamics of what is means to experience the iPhone. They don’t actually seam that interested in making money from the sale of applications but rather build demand for the iPhone in the mainstream. From what I recall at the announcement SJ stated something along the lines of “…we are just covering our costs.”
I agree. There doesn’t at this stage seem to be any reason that you can’t put a zero charge app up on Apple’s store. It won’t be much use for customers who don’t have a Xero username/password, of course.
Or maybe you could make it do a little something even for people who aren’t Xero customers, but it suddenly becomes oh so much more useful if you are…
Can you just load up zero charged apps or is there a testing process?
Rod:
there is a distinction between native iPhone/Touch apps, which will be sold via the store, and webapps which are listed as a courtesy here: http://www.apple.com/webapps/
I guess it may be possible to “purchase” a webapp, e.g. a subscription, but I’ve not seen that proposed. We’re all a bit in the dark until the WWDC though.
The iPhone/Touch native app development env is freely available, but device testing keys and iTunes submission is/will be only available to approved developers, who have paid *and* been selected. I have a NZ friend who has been selected, so it is opening up, but it is by no means automatic.
I think you’re more interested in webapps for the iPhone, given this is in line with your main offering? If so there is a simple submission application off the page above (right hand side).
HTH,
Bruce