Did Apple Make A Mistake Choosing Objective-C For iPhone SDK?

Language popularity is one small component in determining success of an SDK, and is the wrong thing to focus on. He should have at least considered the reach of the platform it is running on.

No. Objective-C is a great language, and Cocoa is a great framework built on top of it.

Any half-decent programmer should be able to pick up the basics very quickly.

The answer is simple: No.

This guy is clueless.

"For example, it took a long time for Apple to even realise that it needed to release an SDK for the iPhone. What they were thinking, I have no idea, given it’s a blindingly obvious requirement."

Obviously not. Obviously from the polish on the SDK, they were planning it all along. In fact, obviously selling the iPhone as a cellphone is a trojan horse for a revolutionary device that will act as a bridge between the computers of the 1990s and the cybernetic future. These guys are playing a game over years, planning this stuff way ahead of time. It comes out as a phone. Then, with GPS, 3G, SDK, it turns into a platform for games, enterprise, etc. After another year, it will do video chats like a tricorder and work with all sorts of devices.