Comments on: No Third Party Apps on iPhone? Cancel My Order!

By: Brett

Brett — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:32:25 +0000

Looks like you can re-submit your order now.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/10/17/apple.iphone.ap/index.html

By: Psychohistory

Psychohistory — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 06:24:06 +0000

A Disappointing Macworld 2007 (no iLife ‘07, no Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard)…

I hate to say it, but I was disappointed with Macworld this year.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the Apple TV. I think I am going to buy four of them – one for each TV, and one for the minivan, that can synch at night when it’s in the driveway…

By: klep

klep — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 03:10:08 +0000

Maybe. As I recall, the first Sidekick was in fact closed to developers, so it didn’t kill the platform. But I still think that users will expect certain functionality that Apple won’t provide. The first thing that comes to mind are readers, importers, and converters for various online services and file formats. There’s probably much more that users will want and Apple won’t provide.

I’ve read some conjecture in the last few days that Apple might announce at WWDC that developers will just need to be approved by Apple, obey certain guidelines, and distribute exclusively through iTunes. That’s a step in the right direction, but I still think it’ll stifle the shareware development that makes OS X so great. I don’t think I would’ve written Mac shareware in high school if I had to go through some scary Apple approval process.

By: Scott Stevenson

Scott Stevenson — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 02:55:34 +0000

I wonder how many Sidekick users download third party apps. I bet it’s very few.

By: klep

klep — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:10:45 +0000

http://www.tuaw.com/2007/01/11/jobs-confirms-iphone-is-a-closed-platform/

Now that Jobs has explicitly said that it’s a closed platform, I withdraw my hunch that they’re going to announce an SDK at a later date. What a horribly crippling decision. The good news is that now I can go ahead and buy a new phone without having to wait until June.

By: klep

klep — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 07:45:05 +0000

I don’t know, Adam. Supposedly, this comes directly from the VP level at Apple. And I don’t really know what the carriers would insist on it — they already allow installable apps on other SmartPhones and they’re lucky enough to have the iPhone on their network. They don’t have enough leverage to force Apple’s arm on this.

If there really are no third party apps, it smells like a Steve Jobs decision. I’m still holding out hope that they’re just saving it to announce later, but I can almost hear Jobs saying that to be truly integrated and usable, the iPhone should exclusively run Apple software.

By: Adam Nash

Adam Nash — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 02:56:48 +0000

Scott, my guess is that they will, but the environment isn’t stable yet, and they don’t have the build environment ready. This would be a perfect announcement for WWDC.

That is, of course, assuming that the carriers didn’t insist on keeping it a closed environment. I do want Skype on my iPhone as soon as possible. I love the integrated WiFi capability.

By: Justin Akehurst

Justin Akehurst — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 18:20:13 +0000

I concur. I’d even learn Cocoa if I knew I could write apps for this phone. Now I’m asking myself “should I get an expensive phone that actually does less than my Nokia 6682? hardly.” I’ll wait until 3rd party apps can be installed.