Apple proudly announced yesterday that four days after launching the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK), over 100,000 developers had already downloaded it, and as it appears many more will follow. Developers went nuts for the beta version of the iPhone SDK, which offers them a rich set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and tools that enable them to create native applications for both the iPhone and iPod touch.
Philip Schiller senior vice president of Apple’s Worldwide Product Marketing, said in a statement: “Developer reaction to the iPhone SDK has been incredible with more than 100,000 downloads in the first four days. Also, over one million people have watched the launch video on Apple.com, further demonstrating the incredible interest developers have in creating applications for the iPhone.”
It seems as if Apple managed once again to create more than just a ‘trend”, rather a “phenomenon” with the SDK, and not only that, but the App Store is said to become a sort of a “developer’s heaven,” as it allows them to wirelessly deliver their application to iPhone and iPod users, establish a price for it and get 70 percent of the sales revenue.
There is not only good news for Apple however, as hackers reportedly already got their hands on the SDK. The iPhone Dev Team modified the beta 2.0 application, enabling the iPhone to run any application. The hackers however warned that, at least from a theoretical point of view, using their instructions could irreparably damage the iPhone.
What this means in that people are free to install whichever software they want on their iPhone, without first going through Apple’s Apps Store. The hackers have managed to decrypt the disk image and jailbreak the firmware, but it still needs hacked activation to work. However, they tried to rest assure AT&T subscribers that if it doesn’t work with their iPhones yet, it will sooner than they think.