As promised, California-based Apple Inc. yesterday played host to a select audience of industry press and analysts, detailing its ‘software roadmap’ for the iPhone while also focusing on the long-awaited iPhone and iPod touch SDKs, and announcing the arrival of a brand new online App Store.
Apple Inc. details its upcoming iPhone SDK, Upgrade 2.0, and online App Store. Credit: FleurDesign/Flickr.
In a move no-doubt designed to further bolster the appeal of its iPhone and iPod touch devices against the likes of BlackBerry, Apple is opening the platform to third-party software developers who have been keen to craft new and creative applications for the popular touch-screen smartphone since its official launch in June of 2007.
“We think this is going to be a boon for developers,” outlined Apple CEO Steve Jobs during Thursday’s invitation-only event. “Hopefully, people will think iPhones are even more valuable and buy more of them.”
Jobs also explained that developers will not have free-reign over what they can produce for iPhone, with Apple firmly in position during the process to vet anything produced prior to it being made available via a new dedicated online store.
The Apple CEO also said that opening the iPhone and iPod touch to outside developers “is not an open source project, it is a for-profit project.”
That profit-making developer ethos was further enforced by venture capitalist John Doerr, who announced that his company, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, had a $100 million USD “iFund” already in place to invest in future iPhone developments.
Notably, the weight of that iFund is only truly felt when considering that Google was initially funded with only $24 million USD, while online retail giant Amazon was funded with a paltry $8 million USD.
With regard to the online App Store and its content, Apple is offering emergent developers the opportunity to define their own application prices and is prepared to give them 70 percent of the sales while the other 30 percent will be channelled back into the Store itself.
As things stand since yesterday’s unveiling, Mac developers looking to hone their talents on the iPhone can take advantage of software on Apple’s official Web site, which allows them to create program applications in a virtual iPhone model.
Similarly, Jobs has stated that developers can flex their creative muscles on real-world iPhone units by signing up to Apple’s development program, which costs $99 USD and allows the company to monitor exactly who’s making what -- which, amongst other things, will enable Apple to be on the look out for any potentially malicious offerings.
The iPhone/iPod touch SDK will be introduced for mass consumption within the upcoming iPhone 2.0 system update, which will target potential business users with directly connected ‘push’ e-mail and secure wireless connection to business networks.
The free-to-download iPhone 2.0 update will be made available across the world this coming June, said Apple.
According to Jobs, more than 4 million iPhone units have been sold since launch.
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