AaronSw sez, “Danger’s launched their developer site, which shows a surprising amount of uncoolness. To download the simulator, you need be verified that you own a Hiptop. To be able to put your software on real Hiptops, you need to write a program and get it approved by Danger or work for ‘a company actively engaged in development for handheld devices.’ Finally, they’ve got a system of ‘Developer Dollars’ to try and stop people from freeloading on the forums. What are they so afraid of? Why can’t they just put the software up on a web server?”
The thing that really got me excited about the Danger when I saw the presentation at last year’s PC Forum was the promise of really simple development for the device — write JBuilder code, run it through a bytecode converter, and biff-bam, you’ve got a Danger app.
But it took a year for these folks to get their SDK out the door, and we find that the terms of use are almost as restrictive than the old Newton deal, which led to a drought of apps for the Newton and paved the way for Palm (which had a free, open SDK) to kick the hell out of Apple. I’m a Danger user — hell, I’m an addict — but the inability to install arbitrary code on the device has really frustrated me. I don’t want to wait for Danger to come up with a browser that has find-in-page, or a mailer that has filtering rules: I want someone to build the apps for me. I’d even pay for ’em.
This developer deal sucks the life out of Danger, sucks the value out of the device. How long until a smart entrepreneur clones the Danger but ships a copy of GCC for it as well? Danger, learn a lesson from Palm: the more apps your device gets, the more it’ll be worth to your customers.
(Thanks, Aaron!)