Someone above pointed out, "You'll notice that no one besides developers are currently clamoring for 3rd party apps on iPhones."
That's because nobody *has* an iPhone yet. As developers, it's our job to think ahead. To build things that users want and need before they actually know that they want and need them. On day one that the iPhone is available, people will bring it home and say, "okay, how do I download an OpenOffice viewer? Where can I find some cool add-ons that customize the way the interface looks?" None of that will exist unless Apple wants it to.
It's clear that this is just a case of Steve being Steve. He wants to build a complete end to end solution, like he did with the iPod. He doesn't want any third party developers doing anything to mess that up. It has nothing to do with Cingular, which allows other Smart Phones to have software, or any technical limitations.
And to those who say that the iPod is better for being a closed environment, consider the difference between a music playing device and a device that claims to be a communications device -- a do-anything device. The iPhone is not an iPod -- it's designed to be general purpose and it will fail its users and Apple's developers if it lacks true support for third party applications.
The most frustrating part is that Jobs went ahead and said the phone had Cocoa -- why even list a developer technology among the features if you're not going to make it available to developers?
by Klep — Jan 15
That's because nobody *has* an iPhone yet. As developers, it's our job to think ahead. To build things that users want and need before they actually know that they want and need them. On day one that the iPhone is available, people will bring it home and say, "okay, how do I download an OpenOffice viewer? Where can I find some cool add-ons that customize the way the interface looks?" None of that will exist unless Apple wants it to.
It's clear that this is just a case of Steve being Steve. He wants to build a complete end to end solution, like he did with the iPod. He doesn't want any third party developers doing anything to mess that up. It has nothing to do with Cingular, which allows other Smart Phones to have software, or any technical limitations.
And to those who say that the iPod is better for being a closed environment, consider the difference between a music playing device and a device that claims to be a communications device -- a do-anything device. The iPhone is not an iPod -- it's designed to be general purpose and it will fail its users and Apple's developers if it lacks true support for third party applications.
The most frustrating part is that Jobs went ahead and said the phone had Cocoa -- why even list a developer technology among the features if you're not going to make it available to developers?