It is as though Steve Jobs read my mind:
P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch.
The rest of his announcement:
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
The iPod Touch is pretty well positioned to be a PDA if Apple makes the SDK powerful enough to create the same sort of applications that they ship with it and the iPhone. I have no intention of going over to AT&T for many reasons, ranging from their brown-nosing of the Bush Administration on wiretapping issues, to their attempt to cut off the Internet access of any of their customers who criticize them and their affiliates. For people like me, the iPod Touch is just about the next best thing that you could get to the iPhone, and having a full SDK for the thing would really allow for some cool capabilities. I'm wondering how hard it would be for someone to put a RSS reader and stuff like that onto an iPod Touch with this SDK.
The Safari web browser that comes on the iPhone has had some stability issues, but it rendered web pages beautifully on an iPod Touch that I played with in the Tyson's Corner Apple Store. It was about as good as I would have gotten on a desktop PC. With features like that, and a high quality SDK, Apple could easily bring in a lot of users who want a PDA into their iPod user base.
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