At first sight iPad developers are lucky ones when compared to some of their colleagues
The Android OS provides developers with much more freedom and independence.
Despite lots of difficulties presented at the market mobile developers are engaged
iPad developers can boast of being in the privileged state in comparison with developers of other platforms. That’s caused first of all due to the general policy Apple is keeping to in regards to its developers. At the same time the privileged position, however nice it may seem, also provides a range of disadvantages. Of course, iPad developers as well as their iPhone colleagues are guaranteed to have some benefits from their activities. They can enjoy a good monetization policy worked out by Apple’s management as well as a number of other advantages – free tools and technologies necessary to deliver an app including.
iPad developers can get all the necessary information and programs indispensable to built a quality application. An SDK kit is regularly updated and all certified iPad developers get it free of charge. At the same time at each new release Apple engineers and specials hold a range of seminars and webinars for third-party developers explaining the essence of a new iteration and peculiarities of application development using a new set of tools.
At the same time all those benefits provided by Apple can not be taken for granted and most of developers working with the platform are well aware of it. At the first sight the renowned company does not ask too much – just developers’ loyalty , which is quite a reasonable demand these days. But the company’s perception of the loyalty notion is quite misty and very occasional. What’s more, it includes lots of aspects which become evident just when a developer encounters some particular situation.
Arguments with Adobe which entertained all the nettizens this summer are a nice example of such loyalty demands. Both iPad and iPhone developers are prohibited to use any cross-platform tools while creating apps for Apple’s sacred gadgets. In such a way Apple would like to mitigate the risk of having apps ported from other platforms. All that was done to raise the overall quality of apps but in reality it has severely limited developers possibilities in creating apps and making money.
Another good example is a notorious Apple’s policy of censorship which allows the company to choose which apps can be approved and which not just on the base of some biased and subjective opinions. There are no clearly stated conditions and Apple experts are accepting and rejecting apps just according to their own liking, while developers have to pull all their patience and just obey. So, however, luring a role of Apple's sacred cow may be, iPad developers are also endangered by some rough character of their seigneur.