Okay, here’s the deal. Jobs Co. has caught wind that all kinds of people want to see 3rd party apps on their iPhones and iPod Touch devices. Its rather amazing as people were really just keeping it quiet, but Steve is an upstanding guy. He was apparently out beating the street with a strained ear to find out what people really wanted. After due diligence, Steve announced that Apple will be shipping an SDK (Software Development Kit) for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This will allow developers to create real applications for these handheld sweeties. I’d say you can look forward to Flash-enabled Firefox pretty soon here, kids! Read on for the announcement text.

 [NOTE: I posted this here because Apple chose not to offer a link to it on their "Start" site. I have copied it here for your reading convenience. -Ed.]

Third Party Applications on the iPhone

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.

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.

Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs.

We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.

Steve

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

[SOURCE: Apple Inc.]

written by Tyler Regas