Dan Grigsby (Mobile Orchard) abandoning iPhone development

Telling: Grigsby can support himself independently by working in the iPhone ecosystem, but to work in Android he may need a job at Google.

For as long as the iPhone has millions of users willing to part with their cash, there'll never be a shortage of developers.

This is very signficant because Dan Grigsby makes his living off of teaching iPhone development courses.<p>Mobile Orchard, "the number-one ranked iPhone developer news site and podcast", was one of the first resources that made me comfortable with iPhone development, and I am sad to see Dan take this 'crossing the Rubicon' stance, especially since it is such a shock (one of the leading podcasts for indie iPhone devs).

I think Dan has an interesting point of view. Many startups are born through exploiting interesting new technologies or opportunities within an ecosystem. However, it does seem that Apple is making that increasingly hard to do. They want to ensure that you're locked into their platform completely.<p>To me, the iPhone as a platform is becomingly potentially more dangerous to make a living on. The application approval process has become increasingly arbitrary and it would really suck to lose your means of living because Apple decided they didn't like something you did.

It's down for me! And "It's not just me!" =)<p><a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.mobileorchard.com%2Fgoodbye%2F&#38;meta=&#38;aq=f&#38;aqi=&#38;aql=&#38;oq=&#38;gs_rfai=" rel="nofollow">http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%...</a>

Apple is really hurting themselves with the developer community. I don't know if it will matter (as pclark points out, they have millions of users willing to part with cash) but it is really painful for me as a fan and a developer.<p>Glad I'm not invested in the iPhone platform...

"muchosmedia Just Letters<p>Application Description<p>So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye!<p>Hi, My name is Just Letters and according to the mothership I'm no longer worthy to be part of your mobile experience. The powers that be have yesterday announced that only tools made by god himself shall be deemed worthy to build iPhone apps.<p>I'm sorry, but I was built using one such evil programming language which goes by the name of ActionScript. For this reason it is probable that I will soon be banished from the walled garden of Eden. How tragic.<p>Maybe this platform has not been the right place for me anyway since clearly the mothership believes games or my type provide no value whatsoever. And I agree - this platform adds no value to me either so I'll pack my bags and return to the wild wild web I came from. It was a lot cosier there anyway.<p>On that note, farewell mothership, and farewell to your products and services. May the walled garden of Eden take good care of you."<p><a href="http://itunes.com/apps/justletters" rel="nofollow">http://itunes.com/apps/justletters</a><p><a href="http://www.muchosmedia.com/blog/?p=113" rel="nofollow">http://www.muchosmedia.com/blog/?p=113</a>

Sounds to me like he was on the verge of looking elsewhere, anyway.<p>So he gets to exit in a blaze of glory and also make his move.<p>Hmm.

I'm sorry to hear about Dan, but I personally disagree about this crying about Apple decisions. Nobody complains about Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo restrictions as far as consolle games.<p>Also if you are a really creative person, you should be creative enough to deal with restrictions. Good developers will pickup the obj-c (I know good AC3 developers who now develop just in obj-c).<p>It's against Apple's interest lower the entry bar to create their application, because that would mean make life easier of those people who focus on develop low quality apps. That doesn't mean that Flash developers are bad. But the good ones won't have problems learning a new language.

If this goes against his principles, then why did he start the site in the first place? It's hard for me to believe that the "only native apps" reason is what pushed it passed the line of being principle. I smell something else...

I subscribed to his blog, and looking at the very low posting frequency, and the fact that the blog in recent times offered very little insights or new information, I thought he had quit a long time ago.

While I understand his arguments, I fail to understand how not letting people use x or y language hinders innovation. If they were blocking people from using certain APIs (which they are btw, but its their platform -- they do what they want), I can understand that you wouldn't be able to make so and so products...but not letting people use .NET or actionscript, I dont see how it really affects people's creativity.

Maybe I'm in the minority here but I'm a developer who works on iPhone &#38; iPad apps, loves Objective-C &#38; the Cocoa frameworks, loves the App Store, makes a decent amount of money from iPhone &#38; iPad apps, and doesn't have much of a problem with Apple's latest restrictions.<p>Anyone else in this boat?

Site is not appearing. I think, he is serious about goodbye!

Rule #1 of the Internet: Never announce that you are leaving. Just go.