Some Thoughts on Next-Month’s iPhone SDK…

According to Steve, Apple is still planning on releasing the long and eagerly awaited iPhone SDK next month.  In fact, in last week’s 1.1.3 update, we can already see some preliminary upgrades in anticipation of the onslaught of new applications, such as pagination and icon re-arrangement. I thought I would add a few of my own thoughts on the subject in anticipation.As it currently stands, no one outside of Apple is really sure what exactly the iPhone SDK will contain, and what opportunities and frameworks it will allow developers.  For example, will Apple restrict development only to large, paying corporate developers, or will (hopefully) small shareware/freeware developers be able to take advantage of it.Additionally, it’s easy to assume Apple will require apps to be installed and managed through iTunes, so will this also mean apps have to be distributed through the iTunes Store too? If so, will Apple demand an income stream from 3rd-party apps, effectively eliminating the small, independent developers and any iPhone freeware (like what we have now with hacked, 3rd party apps.)? I hope not. Apple wants secure, managed, and signed code on the iPhone – so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Apple require developers to receive their permission to get an app to run on the iPhone, and to get this, I would imagine some sort of monetary exchange would be required. However, such circumstances would be very, very disappointing.Finally, will the SDK provide developers with full access to the iPhone’s software framework for full and rich applications (like the ones we have now), or will the SDK bring a Dashboard-esque environment isolated from the iPhone itself, only allowing developers (at least small ones) to create widgets in JavaScript. Amazing applications are not widgets, can’t be written in JavaScript or in a Dashboard environment. Again, this wouldn’t be too surprising, but it would be extremely disappointing.Apple, please give all of us iPhone users a full SDK allowing full and rich applications, not limited widgets! Additionally, please allow anyone who wants to develop an iPhone app, develop one. Apple, show us that you listen and care about your users, and your decisions aren’t all about corporate greed