We can all finally relax. During yesterday’s conference,
Steve Jobs offered some answers to all the questions posed by analysts and
media during the past weeks about the iPhone SDK and the iPhone's future.
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. Enterprise customers will
be able to create a secure, private page on the AppStore accessible only by
their employees. Apple will cover all credit card, web hosting, infrastructure
and DRM costs associated with offering applications on the App Store.
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?