Danny Gorog20 March 2008, 12:04 PM
Apple this morning announced major changes for the iPhone platform by releasing an SDK that will let developers write local applications for the iPhone, as well as have full over-the-air sync with Exchange servers.
Apple this morning announced major changes for the iPhone platform by releasing an SDK that will let developers write local applications for the iPhone.
The SDK (Software Development Kit) is based on Mac OS X (with some allowances for the touch interface, rather than keyboard and mouse) and uses similar tools development tools like Xcode and Interface Builder.
Apple also announced the next update to the iPhone OS -- 2.0 -- due in June, will provide full Active Sync support for the iPhone.
Enterprise support is coming to an iPhone near you.Phil Schiller, VP of marketing, began the presentation by discussing what enterprise customers wanted from the iPhone and included a long list of features like push email, push calendar, push contacts, Cisco IPsec VPN, Global Address List, enforced security policies and remote wipe.
That's all the stuff that Active Sync does, so Apple decided to license Active Sync and build it in to the phones. As far as I can tell, this gives the same level of Exchange support to the iPhone as all other Windows Mobile phones. It's also marks the point in time where RIM (makers of BlackBerry) might start to feel a little anxious about the iPhone.
Developers can register for the iPhone SDK and download it from developer.apple.com for $99. Developers will be able to distribute their apps to iPhone users via a new App Store. The App Store runs over WiFi and EDGE and it functions in a similar manner to the iTunes WiFi store. Users can simply choose an app and download it directly to the iPhone (apps can also be downloaded in iTunes and synced across).
Developers can release free applications, in which case Apple bears all costs, but they can also pick the price of their applications, in which case the developer receives a 70 percent cut of revenue. Apple claim their 30 percent cut is to cover running the store.
Like Installer.app (the free solution that's installed on millions of jailbroken phones already), the App store will completely manage all the apps you've got installed, including update notification and deletion.
Jobs used other Apple execs to do the presentation this morning but also used a lot of third party developers like Sega, AOL, Salesforce.com and EA to demo the sort of applications users could expect on the iPhone come June. AOL for example demoed an IM client while EA showed off a new game called Spore which used the accelerometer to move the main 'spore' character around the game.
Jobs finished off the presentation by bring John Doerr, a partner at a large VC firm called KPCB up to the stage to announce the $100 million iFund - a pool of money designed to invest in the iPhone development community. It's in a similar vein to the $10 million Google has offered developers to build apps for Android (a platform that doesn't exist on commercial handsets yet) but for the iPhone platform which took a 28 percent market share in smartphones in Q4 2007.