[tptacek]

In fact, the iPhone/iPad is vastly more open than any game console: you can develop commercial applications for it on an almost level playing field with the largest title producers, and market your products on the same shelf as they do, at a tiny cost. What do pro dev kits for the X360 cost again?

[gte910h]

Bad example, you can get on the XBox360 marketplace for $99 dollars these days.

The iphone was vastly more open than almost any phone before it was. Just android is completely open.

[somebear]

I'm not sure you've heard about Symbian, it's only 47% of the smartphone market [1]. You can develop apps for Symbian and install them on your device very easily. Unless you are doing anything hardcore they can even be self-signed (since Symbian OS 9.1 released in 2005 apps have to be signed to be installed) as long as they don't need any hardcore capabilities.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone

[tptacek]

Is Symbian to Nokia what XNA is to the X360?

[somebear]

I don't know, but Symbian does have the largest value share of the platforms at Nokia (S30/S40, Symbian, Maemo).

[tptacek]

Give me a break. People writing XNA games are not on a level playing field --- at the platform level --- with people writing retail titles.

[metachor]

This is correct. The XNA framework for indie XBox 360 game development has serious technical limitations that set it apart from the "professional" development kit (which I am not able to obtain the price for, as I am not already an established game production company).

Being forced to write in managed code on top of a library of entirely managed code with an uncontrollable garbage collector is one technical issue off the top of my head.