My Reactions to the iPhone Roadmap

Today the iPhone SDK was revealed, along with a roadmap of the next couple of months. In effect, it looks like this:

• March 2008: SDK, iPhone software 2.0 beta
• Late June 2008: iPhone software 2.0 final

And that's it. No mention of 3G or additional iPhone hardware, and the Late June 2008 date (one year anniversary of the iPhone) bears some significance as a possible drop date for a 2.0 hardware revision of the iPhone to go along with all the software revisions. Well, that's my belief anyways.

The iPhone is a great little mobile platform, and while the business tasks are no doubt interesting in how they can make a difference at their workplace, I can't help but to think that the iPhone is going to be a great platform for gamers -- making a game for an iPhone is going to be similar to developing a great Nintendo DS game. I'm not sure I can make the same claim for the Android SDK, since the hardware will be so varied.

I think we're going to see an explosion of indie and casual game developers on the iPhone -- yes, the platform is small, and hopefully that'll force the game devs to focus on the important aspect of the game: the gameplay.