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At Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC) yesterday, Steve Jobs announced third-party developers would be able to build applications for the iPhone, due for release on June 29th, but only through Web 2.0 Internet standards. This means their won't be a software developer kit (SDK) to enable developers to write applications that'll run directly in the iPhone's operating system, a modified version of Mac OS X. Rather, the Web 2.0 applications written for the iPhone will operate through the iPhone's Safari web browser. "There's no SDK needed; if you know how to write applications for modern Web standards, you can go live [on the iPhone] on June 29," according to Jobs.
While the lack of an SDK and the inability to access the smartphone’s operating system appears to limit the complexity of the software written for the iPhone by third-parties, Jobs asserts these applications will behave and look just like software built into the iPhone by Apple itself. For example, with their applications, developers will be able to access iPhone services, such as making a phone call, sending an e-mail and displaying a location in Google Maps.
“Developers and users alike are going to be very surprised and pleased at how great these applications look and work on iPhone,” said Jobs during his keynote. “Our innovative approach, using Web 2.0-based standards, lets developers create amazing new applications while keeping the iPhone secure and reliable.” In other words, Apple will maintain a considerable amount of control over the software that runs on the iPhone. And any software developed by third-parties will run at a level above the operating system, so as reduce the chance that these applications will muck up the iPhone's performance and security.
One potential problem for developers is that some, if not a lot, of their applications may not be feasible in a browser, but may require native support for the flavor of Mac OS X the iPhone runs, which Apple is apparently not ready to offer.
More Recent iPhone News Update: An AT&T memo has confirmed that the 6:00 pm release of the iPhone represents local time. So folks on the east coast will be able to get their hands on one three hours ahead of people on the west. Whatever the exact time, the iPhone will go for $499 for a 4GB model and $599 for a 8GB edition, both with a two-year contract from AT&T (Cingular), which has exclusive rights to the iPhone in the U.S. for the next 5 years.
It should therefore come as no surprise that Mossberg already has an iPhone in hand. He pulled one out during The Chronicle's Presidents Forum. So what does he think of the smartphone so far: He won't give a definitive answer until his write-up appears in print a couple of weeks from now, of course. But Mossberg did say he's not sure he'll give it a good or bad review yet. At the forum, he said, "I can already see some things I don’t like about it. I see some other things that I do like a lot about it.”
The touch screen keyboard will be an important factor in his evaluation.
“They are claiming that through clever software they have figured out a way for this to be actually far more accurate and efficient than you think it will be, and I’m testing that proposition,” Mossberg said. “And I can tell you that in the first hour it works a little better than I thought, but I’m still not sure it works as well as a regular keyboard — and the first hour is not a very fair test, so I’m going to keep going at it.”
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