[Mobilepartners] Apple's Plans for Third Party Applications on the iPhone

[Andrew Yu]

Greetings!

Apple just announced its plans to provide SDK for the iPhone that would 
enable developers to write "real" software applications by February 2008.

Link: http://www.apple.com/startpage/

Full Text from Apple
October 17, 2007
Third Party Applications on the iPhone
Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, 
and we plan to have an SDK in developers' hands in February. We are excited 
about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone 
and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our 
revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software 
architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for 
developers. It will take until February to release an SDK because we're 
trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once-provide an advanced 
and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users 
from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some 
claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones-this is 
simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones 
already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the 
cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs 
will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone 
ever, it will be a highly visible target. Some companies are already taking 
action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded 
onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that 
can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less 
than "totally open," we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are 
working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to 
natively program the iPhone's amazing software platform while at the same 
time protecting users from malicious programs. We think a few months of 
patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party 
applications running on safe and reliable iPhones. Steve P.S.: The SDK will 
also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch.


_______________________________
Andrew Yu
Mobile Devices Platform Coordinator
Information Services & Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Phone: 617-324-8985
Email: andrewyu at mit.edu
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