Those who are eagerly looking to get their hands on the final version of iPhone SDK will have to wait a little bit longer until June. Though, it shouldn’t be a problem as until now they already have the beta version to play with.
The iPhone 2.0 beta release includes both the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) as well as new enterprise features such as support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide secure, over-the-air push email, contacts and calendars as well as remote wipe, and the addition of Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to private corporate networks.
That sounds a lot of interesting features for the developers who want to create new ways to use the iPhone.
On the other hand, Steve Jobs announced the AppStore, which is included in the iPhone 2.0 software. It is a new application that lets users browse, search, purchase and wirelessly download third party applications directly onto their iPhone or iPod touch.
Practically, every developer can submit their applications to the AppStore; Apple would retain 30 percent of all sales revenues.
Users can download free applications at no charge to either
the user or developer, or purchase priced applications with just one click.
As it was rumored, third party iPhone and iPod touch applications must be approved by Apple and will be available exclusively through the App Store.
So; knowing all these things, what does the future hold for Apple iPhone? First of all, it means that, in a very short period of time, there will be hundreds, maybe thousands of applications available for iPhone.
IPhone will most probably compete for the title of phone with most applications at the launching of the final version of the SDK in June, which will surely lead to increased sales.
Secondly, Apple succeeds once more in reinventing the mobile phone business. Instead of proposing technical specs that are superior to the iPhone version of a year ago, the company prefers to reinvent the use of a mobile phone. As the effort of hiring a department that keeps making software for iPhone would have been too great, Steve Jobs came up with the SDK.
It will be interesting to see how the other mobile phone producers will try to counter what Apple is doing at the moment, i.e. emphasizing hardware, not software.
Thirdly, Apple has gained an incredible marketing force. Each of the companies promoting their iPhone applications will implicitly promote Apple’s phone. Steve Jobs proves his genius once more: he has found a huge library of applications, a new revenue stream generated by iPhone and marketing that he would have otherwise had to pay at least several tens of millions for.
Now really, does anyone still have the slightest shadow of a doubt that Apple will reach its target of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008?