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At a company event today Apple has introduced an iPhone softwaredevelopment kit allowing developers to begin building third partyapplications for the device.
Spore on iPhone:
According to a Macworld article, Apple indicated that an iPhone application accounted for 25 per cent of Bank of America's mobile banking transactions.
"Starting today, we're opening up the same APIs and tools that weuse internally," said Apple's vice president of iPhone software ScottForstall.
Apple engineers have created a new framework for applicationdevelopment, based on OS X's Cocoa environment, which it calls CocoaTouch. The core OS is similar to Mac OS X, but with memory optimisationand power management features - and the provision of built-in supportfor touch-based controls.
iPhone SDK also supports Core Audio and a whole new range ofservices, including Core Location. The API will allow developers toaccess the address book, certain databases, and location information tocreate location-aware applications along with video and audiocapabilities, 3D effects, and an embedded version of OpenGL.
As far as games are concerned, the iPhone SDK also lets developersmake use of the phones accelerometer - motion sensors that allow thephone to know where it is located in 3D space and respond accordingly.
Pocket Lintreports that Apple demonstrated the technology with a game called TouchFighter in which a spaceship was controlled by tilting the phone. EAand Sega, given two weeks to develop an iPhone demo, showed Spore andSuper Monkey Ball, respectively.
"We think we're years ahead of any other platform for a mobile device," Forstall said.
Apple will deploy the development kit through its existing Xcodeenvironment with an interface builder, iPhone simulator and varioustools to check memory usage. Created applications can be sent straightacross to an iPhone for testing.
Apple has published last night's presentation of the iPhone 2.0 software and SDK, making the event available for view in QuickTime.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs, along with senior vice president of productmarketing and Scott Forstall, Apple's vice president of iPhonesoftware, presented Apple's software roadmap to the public at thecompany's Cupertino headquarters on Thursday morning.
The executives described a tri-partisan strategy: for the enterprise,for developers and on how to bring future solutions to consumers.
The SDK is now available to developers, who are creatingapplications for a new "App Store" that iPhone users will gain accessto in June.
What exactly is iPhone 2.0? Jobs and his executives unveileda pair of projects that together make up the update they dubbed iPhone2.0. The first is support for Exchange, the Microsoft Corp. mail serverthat rules the corporate messaging roost. The second is thepreviously-announced software developer's kit, or SDK -- the tools anddocumentation that developers will need to craft applications that willrun on the iPhone.
The first, Exchange support, is a big deal,but it appeals to a subset of iPhone owners. With Apple's emphasis onthe consumer market -- and its less-than-stellar reputation amongold-school enterprise IT -- not every iPhone customer will care whetherthe device can grab e-mail from a server at headquarters.
Thesecond, however, will affect everyone who has or plans to buy aniPhone, because everyone buys software or downloads free software.
As it stands, the iPhone is like a computer that runs only the softwarebuilt into the operating system or bundled with the machine. The SDKwill make it possible for third-party developers and software companiesto create new applications, making the iPhone even more computer-likein its functional flexibility.
The developer tools that makeup the SDK won't actually be part of the Phone 2.0 update, but they maylead to programs that will go on sale or be offered gratis when thatupdate reaches users.
When do I get the new iPhone software?"Late June," said Jobs. Knowing Apple's taste for the dramatic, we'vecircled June 27 as the most likely release date. That's the finalFriday of the month and the one closest to the one-year anniversary ofthe iPhone's 2007 debut, which also took place on a Friday.
Apple is accepting applications for a limited number of slots -- ithasn't said how many -- for a beta-test program for the Exchangesupport part of iPhone 2.0. Interested enterprise types can apply here.
Developers can download the free SDK, from Apple's site and apply to either the Standard ($99) or Enterprise Program ($299) from the same page.
Will I be able to download iPhone apps from the Web?Not like you're probably thinking. Software will be distributedstraight to the iPhone through App Store, the online mart that willopen in June. In addition, users will be able to reach App Store fromiTunes on a Mac or PC; the computer will later push the downloadedapplications to docked iPhones.
n other words, Apple controls the distribution channel and won't allow users to simply grab anything from anywhere.
Of course, that doesn't mean it won't happen. Expect to see hacks thatcircumvent App Store, just as there are now "jail breaks" that letusers install unsanctioned software onto current iPhones.
Will companies that create in-house iPhone software have to use App Store, too? No, or at least not the public version of the online store. In a short Q&A that followed the iPhone 2.0 rollout, Phil Schiller,who heads Apple's marketing, said the company is working on a way forbusinesses to get internal iPhone apps to their employees.
Some have speculated that the same mechanism, whatever it is, might beused by software developers to seed an invite-only group of betatesters with preliminary versions before the final versions hit AppStore.
What kind of programs will developers write for the iPhone?If the few that Apple trotted out last week during brief demos were anyclue, everything from games -- for instance, Electronic Arts Inc.showed a scaled-back version of Spore -- to hardcore businessapplications, such as the glimpse Salesforce.com Inc. gave of how itcould push data from its software-as-a-service CRM application to thedevice.
The SDK gives developers access to the iPhone'sgesture-based multi-touch screen, animation technology, storage space,the accelerometer (the small sensor that automatically switches betweenlandscape and portrait display), the built-in camera and more. So withsome exceptions, it appears that the sky's the limit as far as whatdevelopers work up.
What exceptions? At one pointduring last week's presentation, a slide reading "Illegal, malicious,unforeseen, porn, privacy, bandwidth hog" popped up behind Jobs. "Therewill be some apps that we're gonna say 'no' to," he said.
Jobsdidn't get specific about the criteria Apple's gatekeepers will use todeny some software spots on App Store, but because each applicationwith be digitally signed, it's probable that Apple will have theability to shut down an already-installed iPhone app if, say, thesoftware later crosses whatever line in the sand Apple has drawn.
In the Q&A afterward, Jobs also said that unlocking software --programs that hack the iPhone so it can be used with more than justthat device's exclusive mobile carrier -- would be banned from AppStore. But Skype-style voice-over-IP programs will be permitted as longas they access Wi-Fi only, not the cellular network.
How much will iPhone apps cost?That's up to the creators of those programs. Apple set no minimum ormaximum, but instead talked about two general categories: free andpaid.
Software designers are free, so to speak, to slap "Free"on their work, in which case Apple bears the cost of marketing anddistributing the programs. "There is no charge for free apps," saidJobs. "There is no charge to the user, no charge to the developer."
Developers who charge a fee, on the other hand, must share revenueswith Apple, which takes a 30% cut. "We keep 30% to run the App Store,"Jobs said.
That combination of free and paid means that thebusiness model used by many developers -- offer a free version, thentry to upsell customers to a second, paid edition with more features --would be possible on the iPhone.
But whether Apple will allowa developer to give away software that includes ads -- another popularbusiness model, especially for Web apps -- is unclear. Knowing Apple'spenchant for taking a slice of the pie, that seems doubtful. Revenuesharing is a possible model, but since that would be based on thedeveloper's numbers, the plan might not get a green light from Apple.
I want to know more about the Exchange part of iPhone 2.0.Apple has licensed Exchange ActiveSync, a communication protocol thatsynchronizes messages, contacts, calendar items, notes and tasksbetween a mobile device and an Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2007 server.Unlike tethered sync, which the iPhone now supports, thesynchronization happens over a wireless cellular or Wi-Fi connection.
According to Microsoft, the two companies started talking about ActiveSync even before the iPhone launched last June.
Once armed with the protocol, Apple was free to write support into theiPhone, either in new applications or by revamping the ones already onthe smart phone. Apple chose the second approach.
So what will I be able to pull from my company's Exchange server come June?Apple senior vice president of worldwide product marketing PhilSchiller ticked off the new functions: push e-mail, push calendar, pushcontacts and access to the company's global address list.
Thatinformation, said Schiller, will sync with the e-mail client alreadyincluded on the iPhone, with the phone's calendar and with the addressbook that's part of the phone function of the device. Those Apple-builtapps will undoubtedly be tweaked to make them ActiveSync-aware, butfrom what Schiller said, the user experience won't change.
What in iPhone 2.0 is aimed at my company's IT department?Apple will also deliver a mass-configuration utility in June that willlet administrators set everything from password policies to VPNoptions. It will also enable them to deliver certificates andindividual e-mail server settings. According to Apple, enterprise ITstaffers will be able to send the configuration information via e-mailto users or direct them to a Web site where they'll grab them with theiPhone.
Other elements come courtesy of ActiveSync, whichprovides for remote wiping -- erasing the memory of a missing or stoleniPhone to keep sensitive information from reaching the wrong hands --as well as establishing policies on password length and complexity.
Finally, separate enhancements in iPhone 2.0 will add support for CiscoIPsec VPN, which in turn offers encryption and certificate-basedauthentication as well as WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) wirelesssecurity.
Whether the new enterprise bits in iPhone 2.0 areenough to tip the scales in Apple's favor, some of the early reactionwasn't exactly enthusiastic. Some analysts, for example, questioned whether the device's security improvements were enough , while several senior IT executives were, at best, skeptical.
"I will believe it when I see it," said George McQuillister, clientcomputing architect at Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) in SanFrancisco, in an interview last week.
The BlackBerry is the corporate smart phone of choice. Is Apple gunning for RIM?Apple executives have bandied about various stats. Jobs put up a slidethat said the iPhone accounted for 28% of the smart phone market,second only to Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry, which leads allothers with 41%.
But Apple never directly confronted the BlackBerry in the presentation. Instead, it gave it a couple of sideswipes.
When Schiller was talking up the iPhone's ability to draw informationfrom Exchange servers using ActiveSync, he noted that RIM's technologyand approach was different. Without naming names, he pointed to anillustration of how BlackBerrys received e-mail from a corporation'smail server.
"[These devices] do get push e-mail and pushcalendaring and contacts, and you think that they come from the serversin the [enterprise] environment, but they don't. They first come from anetwork operations center that's outside your firewall. It's evenoutside the country for most people.
"That adds risk to reliability, as we've seen from time to time," said Schiller, clearly referring to the RIM outage last month that cut off e-mail to most users for several hours.
Later, in the Q&A portion of the event, Jobs took a shot at RIMhimself. "Every e-mail goes through a NOC [network operations center]up in Canada," the CEO said, according to a story posted Thursday by Forbes.com."That provides a single point of failure, but it also provides a veryinteresting security situation, where someone working up at that NOCcould be potentially having a little look at your e-mail. Nobody seemsto be focused on that. We certainly are. We think that a directconnection could be a little more secure."
Enough about iPhone 2.0. I'm on board, but I don't have $399. What are my options? Short answer: iPod touch.
(It's appropriate that this question wraps up the FAQ, since Apple mentioned the iPod touch almost an afterthought last week.)
The iPod touch is the same size and shape as the iPhone, and it's thesame inside too -- except it lacks the cell phone features, and thusaccess to AT&T Inc.'s cellular data network. Apple said that theiPod touch -- which currently sells in three models at $299, $399 and$499 -- will also get a 2.0 update in June.
Said update will,like the one aimed at the iPhone, add Exchange support and App Store.Two caveats, of course: The iPod touch will sync with the office'sExchange server only when the device is in Wi-Fi range of a hot spot,and iPod touch owners must fork over a not-yet-set fee for the upgrade.
That fee, Jobs explained, is required -- so Apple says, anyway-- because of the difference in how it accounts for iPod and iPhonerevenues. The former's full amount gets dropped onto the balance sheetwhen one is sold, while iPhone income is spread out over the multimonthspan of the carrier contract. In the U.S., it's 24 months -- theminimum service contract with AT&T.
Apple did somethingsimilar in mid-January when it released a major update for the iPhoneand iPod touch; the former was free, but the touch's update came with a$19.99 price tag.
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