Building iPhone OS Accessories: Use the iPhone Accessories API to Control and Monitor Devices

With the announcement at WWDC 2009 of the EAAccessory Framework, I had two instant thoughts: (1) this is really cool and could make someone a lot of money, and (2) Im probably already too late. This second thought was because, at the time, there were probably about 100,000 apps in the App Store and it had been around a year, I think. I thought there was no way I could develop all the cool accessories I had in my head before other people and companies had done it and itd be just like the App Store. But I decided to try anyway, always keeping an ear out for what was going on in the accessory world. The obvious first project was a credit card reader for the iPhone. From my shop, Mac Medics, I repair anywhere from two to ten iPhone screens a day, six days a week. It makes me a nice little bit of green. What I learned was that at least three-quarters of my customers were business people who used their iPhones for business. Most of them really would have liked to have a way to accept credit cards on their iPhones.