Apple's iPhone is aimed to be a game changer for the mobile world and today has been one of the key turning points in that unfolding story. Today's announcements were basically two. The new iPhone SDK, or Software Development Kit, made all of the debates about locked or unlocked phones fade away into the distance. Second, allowing the phone to be tied to Microsoft Exchange and bringing in Blackberry-style push email turned the tables in the debate over whether the iPhone can be a business phone.
You can watch the official Apple video of today's announcements here. Details on the announcements and public reactions below. Update: Our network blog last100 has extensive notes on today's announcement.
The API for the phone, called Cocoa Touch, comes with an iPhone version of the same developer tools Apple offers Mac developers today. The Cocoa Touch toolkit will include the following, succinctly summarized by Mark Hendrickson at TechCrunch: "Interface Builder, Instruments, and iPhone Simulator. Interface Builder lets you drag-n-drop an interface together for your new iPhone app. Instruments is a suite of performance analytics tools. And iPhone Simulator simulates the entire API stack of the iPhone letting you test an iPhone app from your Mac."
The announcement focused extensively on the location awareness capabilities the phone has and by all accounts developers are very excited to get their hands on it. Apple will open an iPhone App Store and take 30% of all transactions made there. Apps will not be allowed to be distributed in any other way. Mac developer and Daring Fireball blogger John Gruber talked to a variety of other developers today and has a good discussion about details from a developer perspective and how excited his community is.
Venture Capitalists Kleiner Perkins announced at the Apple event that they are launching a $100 million fund to finance companies developing applications for the iPhone.
In making the announcements today, Apple quickly and repeatedly said they'd be taking steps to satisfy Enterprise IT departments. The fact that the phone can only be used on one carrier seems the biggest issue there, but many of the issues relevant to enterprise use cases are well explored by Ephraim Schwartz at Infoworld today. There's extensive work being done to create equivalence between the information on the desktop and the phone. There's smart database infrastructure being set up for the new iPhone software. There's a whole lot going on there.
Apple's iPhone SDK has overshadowed a flurry of other mobile news this week, including the announcement that Nokia devices will carry Microsoft's Flash competitor Silverlight, but it's all just evidence that mobile really isn't dead. Quite far from it. You can follow the latest news and debates on issues like location awareness/privacy and user interface via the mobile resources in the RWW Toolkit for Key Topics in 2008.
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all Read/WriteWeb posts
The iPhone is a fad!
Posted by: steveballmer | March 6, 2008 10:28 PMI don't agree that the SDK announcement "made all of the debates about locked or unlocked phones fade away into the distance."
There are two issues:
1. Running your own applications on the Iphone. The SDK goes some way towards solving this issue, but Apple still holds a lot of control (some would say too much). I can only imagine the outrage if Microsoft tried to control a platform to the extent Apple does.
2. Choosing your own carrier. The SDK does not solve this issue, and therefore lots of people still need want unlocked phones.
Posted by: Henry | March 6, 2008 11:07 PMThe site features home and Personal download software including Home: design, repair, electronics, maintenance, appraisal, building, and landscaping, and Personal: organizing, screen savers, last will and testament, divorce, buying and selling, and leases.
Posted by: Home and Personal | March 6, 2008 11:17 PMHenry, I totally hear what you're saying, but I think for the vast majority of people the iPhone app store will be more than good enough. As for the carrier issue, that's totally an issue.
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick | March 6, 2008 11:30 PMI agree with "Fake" Ballmer.
iPhone SDK would surely create some serious business as well.
Srinix
Posted by: Srinix | March 6, 2008 11:58 PMhttp://codingweb.blogspot.com
It is all very well providing SDKs and funding to developers to write more applications to create positive network effects for the iPhone. But should all this really be discussed assuming the tie-in-with-MNO model of flogging the iPhone is somehow not an issue at all?
Where I live - in London, UK - the iPhone on an )2 contract costs £329 (US$ 658 in current money). This is a lot of money for most people, and definitely a lot of money for employers to start giving out these iPhones to their employees.
To ensure broad adoption there may be much incumbent-dislodging to do. Remember the tie-in? What of companies that are Orange or T-Mobile corporate customers? Then again, what of the sunk costs with devices such as Blackberry which are already powering the travelling executive's downtime emails and websurfing?
The iPhone is seductive, there is no doubt. But as a petite woman, I find it hilarious to watch stub-fingered men trying to tap its screen! Oh how they would benefit from a stylus... Our digits did not evolve to become thinner yet device manufacturers, with their sleeker and sleeker next-gen devices, seem to assume they did. But that is a digression. On that account alone, fake/ real Steve Ballmer should anyway not buy one ;-)
Posted by: Shefaly | March 7, 2008 6:52 AMThanks for the comments guys. I guess I have a little more homework before I decide to buy or not. Cool Product-I just dont know if it really works or not. T
Posted by: Starting a Small Business | March 11, 2008 10:32 PM