Developing for the iPad

Developing for the iPad (0)

Roslyn Zolandor | 8/02/2010

As most of the applications currently available in the App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch can work on the iPad we ask ourselves what can we develop for the iPad.

It may help to compare the 3 devices to see what the differences are between the iPad, iPhone and iPod. The biggest difference is the display then secondly the battery life.

	iPad	iPhone	iPod Touch
Display	9.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch	3.5 –inch (diagonal) widescreen 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 pixels per inch	3.5 –inch (diagonal) widescreen 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 pixels per inch
Capacity	16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive	16GB or 32GB flash drive	32GB, or 64GB flash drive
Audio	Yes	Yes	Yes
Video Support	Yes (except flash)	Yes (except flash)	Yes (except flash)
Built in Camera	No	Yes	No
Battery life for surfing and video	Approx 10 hours	Approx 5-9 hours	Approx 6 hours

One of the obvious things to do would be to revisit the current apps and re-develop them to take advantage of the bigger screen and processing power. Which is what Firemint who developed Flight Control the 1# selling app in the App Store is doing.

As for new applications the restrictions that limited what you could do on the iPhone and iPod Touch don’t apply therefore the world is your apple.

It may also be worth noting that the iPad is not the only tablet you might consider developing for there is also rumours that Sony is joining the market with their own take on the tablet which may look something like their first attempt the Sony Dash (pictured below)