Jonathan Davies

So yes ladies and gentlemen Mr Jobs has once again written us an “open letter” telling us the struggles that they have been going through with building an SDK for the iPhone are finally over.

Here is an excerpt:

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

So they have been trying at least, it must be pretty hard work… But what I don’t understand is. Isn’t there already an SDK for the iPhone - Apple are using it! I suppose that they know the constraints of the providers where maybe a third-party developer may want to but a VOIP client on there so they can’t let that happen.

But that wasn’t the excuse that Mr Jobs gave us, oh no!

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.

Virus’? Malware? I thought that the iPhone runs OS X? I know that Mac OS X is still capable of getting virus’ but how can they go touting on the Desktop side of things “Mac OS X is very secure” and then say “The iPhone is very susceptible to virus’

Have I missed something? Why can’t Apple make their mind up about whether Mac OS X is secure? I think that the answer to the question ‘when will get third-party apps?’ Has made even more questions for us to ask, as to how secure Apple thinks at least, the mobile version of Mac OS X is.

On a slightly higher note:

P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch.

So yeah, I am happy in some ways but in the long run I’m not to sure if this is going to be good news for the state of OS X on a whole.

What do you think about third part apps finally being allowed on the iPhone? Leave a comment or use the contact form!

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