iPad Developers Code Their Apps in the Dark

iPad back

Apple on Friday said it would begin accepting submissions for iPad apps next week to launch with the grand opening of the iPad App Store.

Apple’s e-mail, provided to Wired.com by a developer who asked to remain anonymous, told developers to submit their apps by March 27, 5 p.m. PT if they wished to release their apps when the iPad lands April 3.

“You will also receive additional information about submitting your app for final review before iPad ships,” Apple’s e-mail stated. “Only apps submitted for the initial review will be considered for the grand opening of the iPad App Store.”

With the iPad launch just days away, we’re sure to see a wealth of brand-new tablet apps from developers eager to get a head start. Most of those developers, however, are coding in the dark, because they haven’t actually seen the device yet.

BusinessWeek on Friday reported that a select group of developers who have worked with the iPad had promised to keep the device isolated in a room with blacked-out windows. Apple also required them to sign a 10-page pact swearing not to disclose any information about the iPad.

Apple has only granted a few developers the privilege of using an iPad to help make their apps, according to BusinessWeek. Some major developers, including Evernote, have been rejected when they requested access to iPads for testing.

That creates a reverse conundrum for the Apple developer community. When the iPhone 3G and the App Store launched in July 2008, many apps were riddled with bugs, because developers were still getting familiar with the new iPhone OS 2.0 software development kit ? but at least the original iPhone was available for testing. With the iPad, the situation has flip-flopped: Developers have experience with the iPhone SDK, but most have never touched an iPad.

And that means developers are coding apps that fit a tablet screen without any hands-on testing to gauge whether their interface is suitable for the iPad experience. Apple provides an emulator for testing iPad apps, but that won’t be the same as actually using the app with a large, multitouch screen.

Even Apple seems to have already been challenged by its own product. A few weeks ago I pointed out that some default iPhone apps ? Calculator, Clock and Stocks, for example ? are conspicuously missing from the iPad, according to press releases and images. Later, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber cited tipsters who explained that Steve Jobs scrapped the iPad versions of those apps.

“Ends up that just blowing up iPhone apps to fill the iPad screen looks and feels weird, even if you use higher-resolution graphics so that nothing looks pixelated,” Gruber wrote. “It wasn’t a technical problem, it was a design problem.”

In theory, making games for the iPad shouldn’t be as difficult. Games resized for a higher resolution might just work out fine. Designing iPad apps in general, however, will likely be a new art that developers ? and even Apple programmers ? fine-tune over time.

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