No Third Party iPhone SDK

[Ashley Aitken]

The goal post has been changing so much in this thread that I don't  
know which way to kick the ball anymore and I've got other things to  
do, so I'll just finish off (my contribution) by saying a couple of  
things:

Of course, Apple could call the (current) iPod OS anything they like,  
after all it's only a label.  However, if they called it "OS X" most  
of us would probably laugh at them (and the Joy of Tech would have a  
great cartoon).

When Apple chose to call the iPhone's operating system "OS X" I  
believe they were trying to give a name to their new embedded version  
of Mac OS X, i.e. the same core operating system less things not  
appropriate for the iPhone.

I don't think any of that is unreasonable inference or wild  
speculation.  Of course, they are saying it is not the real Mac OS X,  
because that product has a whole lot of things not in the OS X.

Now with regards to the SDK, Apple could very well go with the fully  
closed route they (originally) took for the iPod, but in the long  
term I think it is unlikely (especially for a machine with such I/O  
and networking capabilities).

As others have said and as we have seen many times, Apple likes to  
crystalise the character of a product, work out APIs, and stake claim  
to the most profitable areas themselves before they open things up  
(if they do at all).

At the very least, Apple has hinted that there will be a whole family  
of iPhone products eventually, like the Mac and iPod product lines,  
and I find it very hard to be believe that they wouldn't open up the  
platform.

It seems to me that even most entry level phones these days allow you  
to install software (Java or Windows CE).  I don't think you need a  
crystal ball to see Apple doing that too - to grows the iPhone  
software ecosystem.

Cheers,
Ashley.


--
Ashley Aitken
Perth, Western Australia
mrhatken at mac dot com
Skype Name: MrHatken (GMT + 8 Hours!)