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.

Everyone knows what they were getting into with this device and if you don’t like Apple’s stance (which I agree sucks and is partly to blame on AT&T) then the best thing to do is to not give them your money. And you are right, MS would never get away with something like this and I fail to understand why we allow Apple to do it. Stop buying iPhones and things will quickly change.

Developing applications for the iPhone via AJAX is, quite frankly, a joke of a solution. It’s the modern version of The Emperor New Clothes. If it is a viable solution, why aren’t we seeing Apple eat its own dog food and release its own applications written in HTML and JavaScript?

It’s wonderful to see a vibrant open source development community create such amazing applications for the iPhone. The Installer.app is simply great — it should have shipped with the iPhone. As a user, I don’t care about the intricacies of Apple’s profit motive but I do care quite a bit about being able to run any software I like on hardware that I’ve purchased. I’d hate to live in a world where we licensed our phones and computers like we license music today and have corporations like Apple and Microsoft dictate what we can and what we can’t run on them.

@Lee: There’s always a risk when you hack something that you’ll brick it :) In this case, though, my iPhone is running happily on T-Mobile UK with lots of yummy homebrew applications. I actually don’t feel the need to upgrade to the latest firmware (even though its been hacked) as I don’t really use it as an iPod and the iTunes music store app doesn’t hold much interest for me. I might even wait this one upgrade out as the phone’s working well for me as-is.

Sorry, that’s a little juvenile, but true ;-)

So, how are you getting on with the phone, Aral? Wasn’t it a bit of a risk buying such an expensive phone that might have ended up as a doorstop?

I’m a long time Symbian OS fan (primarily on Nokia devices) but you do encounter varying levels of quality in the apps that you get for it, and I have experienced some that crash your phone. If Apple has a goal to make sure that applications are of good quality then that’s a good thing in my opinion.

It would be nice however if Apple gave some kind of official indication regarding an SDK for native apps rather than leaving it all to conjecture.

Really? Baffling? Not much imagination. There are probably many sensible reasons why. Here are four: Apple, in a rush to get the iPhone out on time, does not have as secure an OS as they want. For example, all apps run as root. And another: Apple has always intended to create a Framework but they haven’t had time with iPhone/Leopard deadline constraints. Or, perhaps, they have a Framework that works with Leopard, hence unusable now, and they are waiting for a big moment (like Leopard’s release) to announce it, to get a big bang and a stock increase. Or applications were collateral damage in the desire to close all avenues to unlocking the iPhone, something they are probably contracted (with AT&T) to do.

This is fun. Can you think of more rational explanations beyond the typical “Apple sux”?