2007.10.20
Apple Won’t Give up Control of the iPod Platform
Steve Jobs announced that an iPhone SDK would be available in February 2008, and the media response has been favorable. I think the favorable response is premature, and that there will be many disappointed people in February.
Prior to the launch of the video iPods in 2005, only one company wrote software that ran on the iPod platform. Apple. A few third party developers have been allowed to develop games for the iPods starting with these video-capable models, but remember that Apple was very picky about who they allowed to do this. Many longtime developers who had excellent relationships with Apple were denied this ability. Most still are.
If we forget about the phone part of the iPhone, it’s just another iPod model. The forthcoming SDK will mark the first time in history that Apple will allow all but a few select third parties into the iPod software platform. Why is Apple suddenly willing to give up the tight control they have over their darling hardware platform?
They won’t.
In the announcement, Jobs mentions Nokia’s restriction that applications running on their newest models must be digitally signed. “While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction,” says Jobs.
Apple must now perform a delicate balancing act. If they too require that applications be digitally signed before they will run on the iPod, developers will cry foul. And, someome will write an unlock program that allows unsigned applications to be run anyway. But Apple has all but admitted that they will be somehow restricting access to the platform; they just haven’t told us how yet. Apple won’t open the platform completely. Nobody has asked Apple how open it will be, and Apple isn’t telling anyone either.
There are any number of possibilities, but one thing that isn’t possible is for Apple to pull back the curtain completely. They won’t do it, because then they would lose control over their most valuable asset: the iPod platform.
Subscriptions