On Wednesday of this week, I attended a MITX event entitled : iPad App Strategies – Success Factors for Creating Apps on a Game Changing Platform, where a panel of four discussed their take on the iPad, and what may be deemed the start of a tablet and new mobile computing era.

 iPad App Strategies Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Moderator and Organizer:
Gene Landy, Chair of the Technology Business Group at the law firm of Ruberto, Israel & Weiner PC and the author of The IT/Digital Legal Companion, an entrepreneur’s guide to digital technology and media law published in June 2008

Panelists:

• Brett Martin, Director, AppFund, Early stage NY-based VC firm specializing in iPhone, iPod and iPad App investments
• Gregory Raiz, Founder, Raizlabs Corporation, iPhone, iPad Development Company with two new iPad Apps
• Brad Rosen, CEO, Drync, New iPad/iPhone Sheet Music App for Musicians and IFooty, international football App.
• Aaron White, CTO, DoInk, iPad and Web Apps for painting and drawing

Who Should Attend:
App developers/designers. Technologists, VCs and marketing professionals who focus on emerging technology.

What does it take to build a business on iPad Apps? How can companies of all kinds take advantage of this new platform opportunity? Join us for this special MITX event; we’ve invited a panel of experts with first hand iPad App experience, including three entrepreneurs and an App-focused venture fund, to explain the strategies that work and those that don’t. The topics for discussion include:

• What has been the entrepreneurs’ experience to date with the iPad?
• Will this device change the way that people interact with computing devices? Is this the beginning of a new tablet era in personal computing? Or is this one device too many?
• What new opportunities does the iPad provide for entrepreneurs? For brand owners?
• What it is possible to create for the iPad App that cannot be done on the iPhone platform?
• How do you make money with iPad? What are the business models? Can you build sustainable businesses in the iPad space?
• What is the best pricing strategy for iPad Apps? Is it different from iPhones?
• What’s it like playing within Apple’s “walled garden.” How does Apple deal with iPad App entrepreneurs? What is the business deal with Apple for selling iPad Apps?
• What is the significance of the new iPhone OS? What about the new Apple restrictions requiring use only of iPhone development tools?
• Are more tablet computers coming? Will they be game changers too?
• What is the market for getting investment in iPad/iPhone technologies? Can entrepreneurs raise money? Do they need it?

Here’s a recap of some of what happened, and my thoughts on the whole event, and also on the nature of the tablet form factor and what the iPad really means for the mobile computing industry.

OK. So I arrived at 1 Broadway, Cambridge MA to find that the elevators were broke and had to climb 7 flights of stairs to get to the event (a nice work out, BTW). When I got arrived to the event, there was a little co-mingling and some folks chatting it up. I had a quick talk with Greg Raiz and also, Aaron White (mostly about my new book book which I had brought, but also about HTML5 and Flash, etc). Had a chat with a guy from Putnam Investments as well (was trying to recall my past web projects I had done for Putnam when I worked at iXL years ago). Anyways, it was good to see the business and financial sectors represented at the event. After all, digital home use will only get you so far with tablet form factor … business on the other hand, well, they have a good deal of budget, and real world business cases for a large portable screen that has multi-touch input!

Once the event started, I made sure to record the whole thing (MP3 (5 MB)) via my pulse pen. It’s rare I remember to bring to record and take notes, but this time I did.

The panel introduced themselves and what they did. Then the moderator (Gene) sent the panel into the questions above. I’m not going to list out what each person said about what (listen to the whole audio if you’re interested). However, I will bring up some good points.

• Greg Raiz had excellent points. One I agree with is that don’t build a business around apps. Rather build it on providing services, and on providing a platform arounding an app. To me, what he was saying was that the Gold Rush was over, and it’s now time to focus on real business practices. The days of building a one off app and striking it rich are to some degree fading away.
• A former employee of Quattro wireless contended to the panel that the iPad was a “fad” and mobile computing was just hype. That was an interesting comment. To me, I could see the point he was trying to make. After all, the iPad is a new device form factor that tries to reinvent the 90′s tablet market when the user experience wasn’t quite there yet (aka the Microsoft tablet days). In any regard, I found the “hype” and “fad” comments right on target when it comes to iPad/iPhone. However, the notion of the tablet form factor is a powerful one, and we can already see that the iPad is now a catalyst for dozens of Android based, and even Windows based devices to be launched into 2011. To sum up: OEMs are all trying to capitalize on the rebirthing of the tablet idea.
• No one really mentioned any tablets besides iPad. Kind of sad, even if most are not out on market. It was an iPad event, but to me, it would have been good to hear thoughts on what other OEMs are doing and even other interesting form factors outside of the Apple dogma.

All in all, it was a pretty cool event and a lot of ground was covered in the time allowed. I’d recommend to MITX that they keep these sorts of forums more open in the future. By open, I mean it’s not all about the iPad and iPhone these days. Mobile computing is much more than what Apple has to offer.

There’s a local Boston based iPhone developer’s meet up at the Asgard on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 6:00 PM (ET) host by Raizlabs.

You’ll need to register to attend. If you’re there, say hello!

There’s another upcoming iPhone event in Boston this week, on Tuesday, July 21, 2009 from 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM (ET) at the Asgard pub, in Cambridge.

Here is more info:

Boston iPhone Developer Drinks and Demos 2.0

“Want to meet other Boston area iPhone developers?

Please join us on Tuesday evening, July 21st, in a private room at the Asgard, a pub restaurant in Cambridge from 6:00-10:00 PM for our second drinks and demo night.

This will be an informal meetup for local iPhone developers. Come have a beer, demo your projects and meet other locals doing the same.

In early April there is a free iPhone Developers event where 3.0 will be discussed.

Here are the logistics:

April 2, 2009 Thu 7:30 PM
Back Bay Event Center
180 Berkeley St
Boston , MA 02116
(617) 236-1199

Apple announced this week that in-app purchases will allow developers to offer subscription content and provide the ability to sell new content and features in a simple and secure process from directly within their apps. Meanwhile, game developers can leverage the new peer-to-peer connections support to more easily create peer-to-peer network games for iPhone and iPod touch by using Bluetooth.

The updated iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) has over 1,000 new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) which will facilitate new capabilities such as in-app content purchases; peer-to-peer connections over Bonjour; an app interface for hardware accessories; access to the iPod music library; a new Maps API and the long-awaited push notification support.

Alex Cone, lead iPhone Developer and trainer of the iPhone Boot Camp, will discuss in depth and chair a discussion about iPhone 3.0 and what it means commercially for developers.

This meetup is the day before our first Three Day Intensive iPhone Boot Camp in Boston. Come join us for a drink afterwards a day before the launch of the Intensive Three Day San Francisco iPhone Boot Camp Workshop

There is a informal iPhone Developers meeting in Boston on March 30th, 2009 at the Asgard Pub in Cambridge.

Here are the details:

Want to meet other Boston area iPhone developers?

Please join us on Monday evening, March 30th, in a private room at the Asgard, a pub restaurant in Cambridge from 6:00-10:00 PM.

This will be an informal meetup for local iPhone developers.

Come have a beer, demo your projects and meet other locals doing the same.

More info is here.

Here is some recent news about Flash on the iPhone, or “iPhlash”, as I’ve seen some folks refer to it (to be “cute”).

Here is what Apple Insider had to say based on this commentary from Shantu (Adobe, CEO):

“Once thought to be building Flash for the iPhone mostly on its own, Adobe has mentioned at the World Economic Forum that it’s not only continuing work on the animation plug-in but has teamed up with Apple to make it a reality.

In an interview with Bloomberg at the Davos, Switzerland event, Adobe chief Shantanu Narayen describes development as a complicated two-way process rather than maintaining the previous image of a one-sided effort that would depend on App Store approval before it could launch.

“It’s a hard technical challenge, and that’s part of the reason Apple and Adobe are collaborating,” he says. “The ball is in our court. The onus is on us to deliver.”

What hurdles Adobe has to overcome aren’t mentioned by the executive, though the company’s long porting process has underscored the difficulty involved. Narayen had said that he was “pleased with progress” as far back as June of last year — just three months after the iPhone SDK made native third-party apps an option on the touchscreen device.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has maintained since nearly a year ago that the real obstacle is the nature of Flash itself. While desktop Flash is too resource-heavy for the small processor and low memory of smartphones like the iPhone, Jobs has warned that Flash Lite is too feature-limited and doesn’t do many of the things users expect Flash to do — such as playing video on the web or showing complex animations on websites.

Most Flash Lite implementations actually depend on an app that runs entirely outside of the web browser and are often based on older versions of Flash that limit their performance and feature set; Jobs has argued for a “product in the middle” that does more.

Whether or not the collaborative process involves working on that app is very much a mystery, but it may be necessary for Flash to appear in Apple’s preferred form, as third-party iPhone apps aren’t allowed to serve as plugins based on the iPhone SDK’s guidelines.

And in the meantime, the cellphone maker has publicly advocated HTML 5 as a replacement and is collaborating with fellow browser developers Mozilla and Opera to perform many of the same functions of Flash but in a more universal and less resource-hungry standard.”

One thing that stood out to me, is that either Steve Jobs, or Apple Insider got the bit about Flash Video not being supported in Flash Lite. I’m tending to believe it’s a misquote by Apple Insider.

You’ve got to be joking! Flash Lite 3.x supports native Flash Video playback just fine. In fact, it’s one of the reasons why every other civilized OEM have adopted Flash Lite on their mobile device platforms.

Sounds like Apple Insider got that bit wrong, as I imagine Apple is not saying that (or maybe they still have hard feelings about the Quick Time plug-in?).

If you hadn’t received an email, an updated iPhone SDK is out from Apple, allowing you to target the latest firmware updates (2.2.1).

This is an excellent post on iPhone SDK provisioning.

I’m posting this for my own record. If you’re having any errors (0xe800003a, 0xe8000001, etc) cropping up, or trouble with the steps and want a place in addition to Apple’s provisioning docs, check out this link:

http://www.talentgrouplabs.com/blog/archive/2008/11/10/iphone-sdk-mobile-provisioning-0xe800003a-0xe8000001.aspx

Just a quick announcement, but I will be speaking at the new 360|iDev conference that takes place from March 2-4, 2009 in San Jose. You can register here (it’s a 3 day event with a lot of cool session material judging from the list speakers! Don’t miss out as tickets will be capped at less than 500 (I think)!).

Here’s a brief synopsis on what goes on at this iPhone conference:
“”360|iDev aims to be the hub for the iPhone developer community. We want to increase the size of the community, as well as raise the community up, sharing lessons learned in business, development, design, etc.

Our goal is to make 360|iDev, the conference we’d attend to learn iPhone development and meet and network with peers in that development community.”

Here is some more tidbits about 360|iDev:

Call for speakers is still on for 360|iDev
About half the conference session slots have been taken now with more awaiting confirmation from bosses and coworkers. Hurry up and submit your topic before it’s too late. Join top-notch speakers like myself drawn from the development community.

The faster you buy your 360|iDev, the cheaper it is.
The newest show by the 360|Conferences guys have their new staggered pricing. This means that prices are as follows:

First 100 tickets are $200
Next 200 tickets are $350
Last 100 tickets are $499

Act fast to get your ticket for the lowest price. 3 days of iPhone development goodness for only $200, that’s the best deal of the year.

360|iDev site badges
Who doesn’t love a good badge on their blog. It’s like those stickers that adorn the cool kids laptops. Well, if you’re coming, planning on coming or wish you were coming to 360|iDev, Tom and John has some badges for you. These are the output of the Doug “Web 4.0″ McCune.