iCloud Developers Speak Up

It's a bold statement to say that something "just works," but it's a claim that Apple's iCloud makes, much to the derision of iCloud developers. The key problem: it just doesn't.

Apple's vision was incredible: create an interface that allows you to interact with all the products you own wherever you are. These can be the apps on your iPhone, the music on your iPod, and the files on your iMac. It was ambitious, and after many years of development, Apple turned it loose, confident that it would "just work." And it does to a certain extent. After all, Apple uses the term iCloud to refer to all sorts of online tech and applications, including its mail and internal synchronization data.

Unfortunately, ambition can have a tendency to fall flat, and iCloud developers quickly found that iCloud apps just didn't sync. The problem is that a central server holds a definitive version of the user's files relating to third-party apps, according to Rich Siegel, founder of Bare Bones software. Any changes made have to be sent back to that central server, which is referred to as Core Data. So, what happens when the server refuses to sync?

Unfortunately, because several mechanisms exist through which data is transferred, the problem is more one of what happens when one of these mechanisms fails. Ideally, a cloud device would spit back a precise error message detailing exactly what went wrong. That's what all that code is for when your PC randomly decides something shouldn't run any more. Ironically, Microsoft's history of producing buggy software means that developers can easily make things that work with it, most of the time, and if this happened with iCloud, developers would be very happy.

Instead, it spits back a generic message that syncing has failed. To an iCloud developer who wants to know why that syncing has failed, this generic message is useless. Alternatively, iCloud indicates there's been an internal error without actually pinpointing that error. Michael Göbel, who founded MOApp, sums up his frustration about dealing with software that "just works" clearly: "Apple will never be able to get the Web thingies right." He also noted that dozens of iCloud developers have given up on iCloud apps.

Those developers who stuck with iCloud have more issues to deal with than the pesky syncing issue. It turns out that if a user decides to switch off syncing, reasonably arguing that it causes the app or program to crash, that user's iCloud data is then removed. This is incredibly frustrating for iCloud developers, whose apps are virtually unmarketable thanks to a system that doesn't really work.

To create apps, iCloud developers need to have a stable and reliable stream to the Core Data servers. Until Apple gets this right, third-party apps just won't work.

(Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)