iPhone SDK announcement : summary
March 7, 2008 – 9:01 am | by Azizi
As expected, Apple announced their SDK (software development kit) for the iPhone today. There were a few surprises, but the bad news is we have to wait until June for the final SDK (and maybe the first official 3rd party applications).
Some interesting tid-bits :
- Apple will release the iPhone 2.0 software update in June, which comes with an on-board App Store.
- You can purchase and download applications directly from the App Store, or from your iTunes.
- It costs $99 for developers to put up their applications on the App Store. Developers get 70% of the cut from all purchases (no additional cost). Free applications will not cost anything to developers or users.
- There will be a version of the much-hyped, much-anticipated Spore game for the iPhone. Along with many other games from people like Electronic Arts.
- Apple has licenced the ActiveSync technology from Microsoft. This is quite a big deal, since now the iPhone as a platform and as a device will support push email and wireless corporate calendar & contact sync. iPhones will be on par with Windows Mobile for Microsoft Exchange features. Watch your back, Blackberry!
- Apple will also include other enterprise-friendly features such as WPA2/802.11X and Cisco IPsec VPN support.
- Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers have launched a US$100 million fund specifically for iPhone applications. This is a great boost and incentive for developers.
Looks like the SDK is shaping up to be a major competitive advantage to Apple. I guess many Palm OS and Windows Mobile developers will start porting their apps to the iPhone. It’s too soon to say how much a typical application would cost the user. iPod games have been so far quite fairly priced, at $5 each versus $10-20 for comparable games on other platforms.
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