As an iPhone application developer you may find iPhone to be an ideal platform or device/gadget to develop a killer application to sell and make a good fortune. But wait, every thing is not as plain as you see. There are some restrictions laid by Apple, producer of the iPhone, which may have negative impact over your development plan. Consider the following before putting in the hard work for developing your own application.

One application at a time

The first restriction put by Apple is “Only one application can run at a time”. This means if you are surfing over the Internet and some one calls you, then you have to quit the surfing to attend the incoming call. Suppose you are on a secure server and you have to frequently leave the page, then it becomes a headache for you to give username and password every time. This seems a problem for user but what for the developer?

Yes, it is something for developer to think over too. Suppose you have developed a GPS application which needs constant support from the user to collect a particular data for your geo-location, then again it makes a compulsion for the user to continue with the same application and ignore all important calls for you. This makes the implications of that application vague.

No third party in background

Another restriction is “no third party application will run in background”. This means instant messengers will not be able to collect messages for you while you are attending an important call. It will show you offline as soon as you switch over to another application. Similarly, it is true for any application, which has to interact with web for periodical updated or for its smooth functioning would prove useless here. Even the whole class of such application will prove useless or significantly less useful than they otherwise would be.

Control on apps

Apple store is formed for the centric distribution of the apps. None can directly distribute any apps and one has to come at the Apple store for its marketing purpose. It not only acts as a marketing point for the developers but can prove a gateway for the iPhone application developers.

You have to take permission for the entrance as an iPhone developer by registering with Apple. When your apps get in the store, Apple will decide weather it will stay there or not by NetShare or any other means. There are again threats for you that they may reject your apps or make significant delay in the release. This may lead to fatal consequences for a developer.

Revoking the certificate

Apple can exert vertical control over the iPhone application developer by simply revoking the certificate given. You may want to ask that how is it related to its apps development if it is already finished? You are right but you may know that since Apple forces all legitimate iPhone apps to be signed, if the certificate is on the “revocation list” no apps signed with that certificate will run anywhere. This would come as quite a shock to your paying customers.

No support for previous versions

“Applications targeting iPhone OS releases prior to 3.0 beta cannot be tested in this seed”

“This software should only be installed on devices dedicated exclusively for iPhone 3.0 beta application development”

“Devices updated to iPhone 3.0 beta cannot be restored to earlier versions of iPhone OS”

“iPhone SDK for iPhone 3.0 cannot be used for submitting iPhone OS 2.2.1 applications to the App Store”

All this has two important implications. If you are an iPhone developer, you’ll need two development machines and two iPhones to be able to work on your 2.x OS-based apps while checking out and upgrading code for the 3.0 OS.