Depending on the developer that you talk to either Christmas came early this year or the End of Days came with a "sherlock" theme. Unfortunately, because of the NDA I can't go into all the stocking stuffers and presents that Apple left under my XCode tree, but I wanted to address those frustrations for current and future developers.
I felt a little drunk just thinking about all the alcohol that some of the iOS devs out west would be drinking shortly after Forstalls' "Letterman Top 10" iOS features where announced.
When it comes to apps that you develop we are always in competition with other developers who have apps just like the ones that we are developing. Make no mistake with over 450,000 apps someone there is an app or game that is similar to yours. Just look at the number of Twitter and to-do apps in there now.
One of the companies that we are also in competition with is Apple. The OS level apps and features that they put into iOS can literally kill current apps that are currently in the AppStore. I don't see this as necessarily a bad thing because it can also inspire us to improve them with our own ideas.
Don't get me wrong my heart goes out to them. I know the pain, suffering and rewards that go along with releasing an app and watching its success grow and/or stall.
Where my optimism comes in, is that I believe in people not products. Those solo developers and companies that had the wind knocked out of them because Apple "invaded" their space, are still just as talented and creative as they were before Apple added in the functionality to take a picture with the volume button or add in the "Read it Later" functionality into Safari.
And just like a great artist does with paints and brushes, I can't wait to see what masterpieces that these developers create with the new APIs with iOS5.