In an article published in the New York Times yesterday, Steve Jobs makes Apple’s intentions about 3rd Party Applications on the iPhone clear. In the article he states:
“These are devices that need to work, and you can’t do that if you load any software on them,†he said. “That doesn’t mean there’s not going to be software to buy that you can load on them coming from us. It doesn’t mean we have to write it all, but it means it has to be more of a controlled environment.â€
In this quote, he clearly states that Apple doesn’t have to write every piece of software for the iPhone.
Will every Tom, Dick and Harry be able to write Apps and load them onto the iPhone officially? No.
Will hackers figure out a way to load their own apps on it a few weeks after launch? Probably.
For me, this puts my concerns to rest for the time being. 3rd Party developers will be able to write applications for the iPhone…it’s just going to have to be a approved by Apple. If this bothers you, vote with your dollars, and don’t buy it….or buy it, and install Linux on it…I’m sure someone will figure out how.
8 thoughts on “No 3rd Party Apps for iPhone? **FALSE**”
This is just like the Sidekick. Even though the have an SDK, your app won’t be available to the general public until it’s been blessed.
It sucks, but that’s just the world of mobile computing these days. Cingular, like T-Mobile, is afraid of what kind of software that will end up on their network.
Keep in mind, it will have a full web browser that will allow anyone to develop web apps geared to the iPhone market.
It seems to me, that a good way to control the quality/functionality of the apps would be to require that they be developed in DashCode as widgets for iPhone or DashBoard. Selecting an iPhone template in DashCode would make sure that the application conforms to the Apple standards for sizing and formatting. Then send to Apple for final testing and blessing. Distribution/installation could be handled with a new Application section of iTunes…