How could you know if the iPhone, or Apple products in general, are becoming more popular? Look at sales records? Sure, but that's so old school.Instead I will point your attention to the fact that Objective C for the first time in history is becoming a popular programming language. Objective C, for those who don't know, is Apple's language of choice for the Cocoa environment they use for their products.
And Objective C is such a worthless "next generation C language" that nobody else uses it so rising Objective C usage can only mean Apple products, and especially the iPhone are becoming more popular. Everybody other than people like Steve Jobs knows that C++, Java and C# took C in the direction it should go, but like the one button mouse, some bad ideas just don't leave the Apple Headquarters.
Now, why am I emphasizing the iPhone? Because it is the iPhone's App Store that is actually driving this trend. Every developer wants to make money selling an iPhone App and so the increase in Objective C usage.
If there was no App Store, the only people using Objective C would be Apple employees forced to use it by their employer. But alas, the increasing popularity of the iPhone with its App Store coupled with the overall rise in Mac use is fueling the increase in Objective C use.
The App Store is really an interesting phenomena. My parents recently bought an iMac that came with a free iPod touch (the iPhone without the phone), which they gave to me since they have no idea what to do with it. The app store is a brilliant way to sell software. I'd advise you to check it out.
ReplyDeleteIt's true, the App Store was another brilliant idea coming out of Apple. (Unlike the desire to use Objective C) Also, their marketing for it has been pretty good.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like everyone these days are jumping on the App Store bandwagon. Many companies are setting up App Stores of their own.
Actually the App Store was doomed not to scale and we're now seeing the effects. As for Obj-C being bad, I think it has few "bad ideas" than C++. (And I am a C++ programmer) But there are some really good ideas lifted from Smalltalk in it. Plus it's been expanded with GC and the like of late.
ReplyDeleteFor the record I've never tried to do an iPhone app (yet) and I've been doing most of my coding in Python of late.
I do most of my programming in Python too! Great language by the way.
ReplyDelete