I do think Apple is hostile to developers, because I don't want a vendor to get inbetween me and my user audience, but that problem applies equally to iOS devices and gaming consoles.

I didn't argue that point in my post. I'm aware the reasons for the iPhone not having a SDK on day one and the reasons for why gaming console vendors don't have a mass developer relations story are very different.

The more interesting point is that developer relations for gaming consoles and iOS devices are really conceptually pretty similar: Both require you to ask the device vendor for permission to ship your app. It's equally walled gardens.

> I don't want a vendor to get inbetween me and my user audience, but that problem applies equally to iOS devices and gaming consoles.

So, pre-iPhone, the market for downloadable apps for mobile phones was huge and there wasn't any intermediary parties (like, say, network operators) getting in the way of developers, right?

On my Palm Treo, apps were plentiful and there was no intermediary.

And widely used by millions of people?

Yes, several million Treos alone were sold, and the Palm ecosystem was much larger than just the Treo line. http://blog.treonauts.com/2006/03/sales_double_ov.html

For a number of years, Palm OS was the dominant mobile ecosystem, with sales almost double of its main competitor WindowsCE.

Several million devices sold ≠ several million people buying software for device.

Where did I say that again?

I don't really disagree with your point but literally every other mobile and smartphone platform that existed before the iPhone was released with an SDK at 1.0.

anyone who has launched titles on a gaming-platform-to-be will be able to tell you about half-baked APIs. :-)

A buggy, half-baked API is better than no API at all, though.

And you have not read the comment he/she is replying to:

Meanwhile, Apple welcomes developers from day one and there are so many applications developed that it's hard to get user attention amongst the app store noise.

Yes, the original commenter was taking issue on the literal point of whether or not there was an SDK on day one as stated in the top level comment, not with the (somewhat obvious) broader point that Apple enthusiastically embraced third party developers for iPhone.

But that's HN for you - we are all a bunch of pedants who love to point and yell when something is incorrect - I include myself.

Not all of us. Some of us are not. Well, I may do it but I don't love it. So you're wrong!