iPhone the dawn of mobile computing, Android a mess: developer

David Swan
Wednesday, 01 July 2009 10:58

Your IT - Mobility

For the co-founder of the menacingly titled iSlayer, Edwards was laidback and relaxed, even on the topic of piracy, which didn't seem to phase him.

"Keeping our prices reasonable helps combat piracy, if apps are only 99 cents or a couple of dollars, most sane people wouldn't go to the effort of finding a crack. If we're maintaining a good business then I'm not too worried about it."

Film and music industry execs could learn much from the man.


On the iPhone 3GS Edwards couldn't praise it enough, describing it in terms of hardware as incredible, saying "the difference in speed between the iPhone 3G and the 3GS is unbelievable, and when games can start taking advantage of that we're going to see some amazing titles."

He hailed apps Rolando and Flight Control, and although he said they "wouldn't work at all" on traditional consoles, on an iPhone they're "unbelievably brilliant, and addictive."


He's also a big fan of the platform in general, hailing Apple for designing each device to "work the same", comparing it favourably to Android, which he described as a "mess".


"The thing that Apple really got right, the thing that everyone else can learn from... you only need to target one device. You can build your app once and test it once. I wouldn't want to be building for Nokia or Blackberry. Android would just be a mess, you don't even know what device you're building for, or if it had a touchscreen."


Edwards did, however, made clear his one gripe with the App Store, and that is the inability for his company to respond to comments left by users, something he'd like to see Apple consider in the future.

In terms of Bjango and iSlayer's future plans, an iStat Menus update is on the way along with a new version of Jobs, Bjango's app for freelancers who want to keep track of how their time is being used. Jobs, like most of Bjangos apps, was born out a need that Edwards had that wasn't being catered to by anything else on the market.

Edwards also spoke of several prototype applications and games being tested, but was low on details, as was to be expected.


Speaking of the future, if there's one thing I shared with Edwards, it's his optimism. "In terms of mobile gaming of this level, this is probably just the beginning," he said. "I can't imagine it stopping any time soon." Whatever the future of the iPhone holds, rest assured Marc Edwards will there, and in a big way.