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Apparently tired of fighting its customers, the hacker community and software developers, Apple today announced it has finally decided to support third-party applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, both of which run on the same operating system.

Steve Jobs has posted a note on Apple’s Hot News Feed, saying Apple would have an SDK (software developer kit) in developers' hands next February. Why will it take so long?

It would seem that it is "no easy task" to provide an open platform to developers while securing the iPhone for users. This includes protecting them from all sorts of nastiness; such as Phone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks and more.

"There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network," Jobs says. "As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous."

The iPhone, according to Jobs, is a "highly visible target" for such attacks. He says it is because the iPhone is "the most advanced phone ever," a highly-debatable assertion; although its operating system, a mini version of Mac OS X, is arguably the most advanced smartphone platform yet.

It likely has more to do with the iPhone being the most hyped and eagerly-anticipated mobile phone, and possibly gadget, ever. And let’s not forget the months Apple has spent alienating folks over its attempts to tightly control and limit what they can do with their iPhones.

As we reported last week, Apple is not going to make the iPhone totally open. In his note Jobs offers up kudos to Nokia and the S60, which has developed a digital signature for applications that run on some of its devices. This allows them to trace the software back to the developer that created it and gives Nokia more control over what can run on its mobile phones and smartphones.(It is a feature Nokia smartphone users can turn off by the way.)

Should Apple take such route, and it appears it will, then it will be Apple who decides what third-party software qualifies to run on the iPhone. This has the potential to severely limit what's made available to end users. I doubt they'd allow folks to disable the feature.

On the bright side, at least Apple has become far more open to third-party software than it was a few weeks ago, when a firmware update negated—temporariily, it turned out&$151;all the progress the hacker community made in enabling applications to run natively on the iPhone.

In related news, Apple has dropped the price of DRM-free songs on iTunes to 99 cents. So you can now purchase tracks without copy protection for your iPhone or iPod for the same amount as those with digital rights management. DRM-free means you’ll be able to play your music on any MP3 player, not just one of Apple’s.

Apparently Amazon’s recently opening of its MP3 store, which only sells DRM-free tracks for no more than 99 cents, was the push Apple needed to lower its prices.