Jobs Confirms iPhone is a Closed Platform

I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with Steve's comments. The West Coast outage comment was just his hyperbolic way of making a point. Keeping the system closed will in fact keep it free from the hackers who regularly try to invade our every day e-systems. Steve is just perpetuating his own Apple vision which, while not pervasive in this high tech world, is clean—except the question marks and symbols that occasionally show up in emails, depending on the server. I say kudos to Steve for having a vision and sticking to it!

After reading this article, I am somewhat comforted but still uneasy.

Apple's decision to lock out second- and third-party developers from the iPhone is, IMHO, still a big mistake. One of the beauties of smartphones (I have owned both Palm- and Pocket PC/Windows Mobile-based ones) is the fact that you can just hop onto PalmGear.com or PocketGear.com or Handango or any of a dozen other application download sites, type in some search terms, and find an application that instantly matches your needs. In fact you usually find 10 or 20 applications that match your needs. Heck, for a time, Microsoft was actually giving away the Software Development Kit for the Windows Mobile platform (not sure if they're still doing this or not), so literally ANYONE with some knowledge of C++ and Win32 and whatnot could code up an app. And believe me, I have tried many of these apps, and even the most badly written of them has yet to mess up my phone or the cellular network. The worst that's ever happened to me was that I had to perform a hard reset -- ok, I lost my data, but a quick HotSync/ActiveSync took care of that.

Yes, these various programs have different UI's, some varying wildly from others. But it's not like the Mac is a paragon of unified UI -- just look at the various third party apps (Disco anyone?), or even at Apple's software itself (there's almost NO consistency between the major iApps, Finder, Address Book, et al).

Still, the silver lining to this crowd is the following quote from His Steveness: "That doesn't mean there's not going to be software to buy that you can load on them coming from us. It doesn't mean we have to write it all, but it means it has to be more of a controlled environment." The way I'm reading this is that other parties who want to develop apps for the iPhone would be able to sign onto Apple and get the super seekret iPhone SDK or something and could code away. Apple would have to have final say on said apps (and would be the one who publishes them, etc.) Basically something similar to the way iPod games are handled on the iTunes Store -- other companies (e.g. Jamdat, EA Games, etc.) make the games; Apple has final say on how they turn out, and handles the distribution.

Just like everyone else, I was straight-up "giddy" when I saw the iPhone being unveiled this week. As an owner/user of a Treo on Cingular who's taken it across the country, used it as my main "computing machine" for email, word processing, web surfing, spreadsheets, etc. for a month while on the road (musician), I have to say that I'm REALLY excited about replacing this thing with an iPhone.

So now they're saying it's a "closed environment". My initial reaction was, "Boo!" I was looking forward to loading my iPhone with some basic apps. But after reading this post, I've realized that those apps could be coming and loaded...but they're just going to be scrutinized and controlled by Apple.

My gut reaction was negative. Why should they have this weird "control"? But then I thought about how I had my Treo crash on tour because of software incompatibilities. If Apple can minimize those, then I'm happy as a pig in... You know.

I agree...I need my phone to work. If Apple can do that as well as make it work LIKE A MAC, then great. My only wish is that they get to work on making it possible to do some basic productivity things...word processing, spreadsheets, ebook reading, etc....on my iPhone. That would be wonderful. I don't care how that's done...either through Apple produced software or by partnering with developers working to their standards. Just make it happen and I'll gladly drop $500 as soon as I can free up space on the credit card. Ha.

OH, and the downside to Cingular's network is it IS slow. Painfully. BUT if this thing can do wifi, then I won't have to borrow my drummer's powerbook on the road (or have a friend meet me in NYC with my lovely MacBook mid-tour), like last summer.

Yeah, just some thoughts, since I've had some practical, real-world experience using the Treo and Cingular.

Personally, though I find it frustrating I understand. I just had a situation that highlight why this morning morning in our lab. A customer was using a particularly finicky slide scanner that just happened to be hooked up to a Mac. The slide scanner jams and he says "Stupid Macs." The third party solution has made Apple look bad.

just as i called it the day of the release.. this will be another version of the SLVR as far as cingular locking you out of your own phone.. no ichat, sao i have to pay 10 cents a text message coming and going.. no mp3 ringtones unless i download them for a buck from itunes... no games transferred from my powerbook to the phone via bluetooth, usb, or wi-fi.. sounds like another great product crippled by the greed of cingular.. how they got to Jobs is a mystery.. doesnt he have enough money yet??

I must be starting to be immune to the RDF or else Steve's losing his powers. The reason that the iPhone is "closed" has nothing to do with "taking Cingular's...network down." The Treo is a phone that runs Palm OS apps and does this happily. Well okay, perhaps not happily but it does it.

This is strictly going to be a commercial money soak for Apple. "Want to develop for the iPhone? Buy our developers kit and pay a $10 per unit sold royalty to us" much the same way that products using the iPod dock have to pay Cupertino a tax.

Bah.

The launch is still 6 months away, so much is still speculative. But consider that the iPhone is mainly software. So you could easily get a version 2.0 of the software, or a compatibility upgrade when a new Mac OS X version is available, that might break existing third party apps. Apple now only has to worry about compatibility with its own iPhone apps. They have control over this.

As Steve said, the most important is to maintain a functioning phone, so they want more control over what gets loaded onto the iPhone.

I think it's a good move, at least to start with.

By preventing 3rd party apps, they can at least take full blame for anything that goes wrong, and can avoid the scenario where some bored developers / hackers create and propogate viruses (this seesm to be the perfect device in which to wreak havoc in that way).

If you want a phone that can run 3rd party apps then go and buy one.

The talk about Cingulars network going down is really just bs.
There are probably enough smartphones out already.
Do they take down any networks?
No, no matter what crappy piece of software you're gonna install.

Apple introduces a 3rd platform besides the iPod and the Mac.
And just as they do with the iPod (Content) and the Mac (iLife, iWork, .Mac Pro Apps - why buy Logic? Why develop Aperture?) they want to sell as much software and services as they can.

It's just part of Apple's business model.
There will be a selection of ringtones, office applications and games for the iPhone. All conveniently available on your iTunes Store next door.

Apple exerts control over how software can be loaded on the device. Maybe even some 3rd-party apps will be available. But then, charging 3rd party developers a distribution/license fee seems just like a logical step for Apple to take...

Steve would rather we didn't chew up the limited internal memory with apps that they didn't profit from. You can install anything you want as long it is something Apple sold you - music, video, itunes games. It makes perfect business sense. But, with so many other 'smart' phones on the market that allow software installs, this limites the buyers to fans, consumers wanting limited multimedia, and those looking for a very cool UI. Actual 'users' will look elseware in a short amount of time as they need the 'multimedia' phone in their pocket to do more than eye candy, they need to be productive.