...BUT JESUS CHRIST, LOOK AT MY STOCK!!!!

hopefully this can be turned into a decent PDA now too and I can dump the Palm at last. Omnigroup? I hope you will jump on the bandwagon and release Omnifocus for it. Of course, it will probably be in alpha for 2 years first. ;-)

I think if Apple had announced the SDK right away, people would have flipped, regardless. "Yea, you could write apps.... next year."

That would not have gone well. Besides, not commenting gave Apple tons of publicity on the iPhone. Some would say controversy shouldn't count, but if that was the case, where would Jerry Springer be?

The audience that really wanted third party apps is nowhere near as large as those content with what the iPhone already was. Don't get me wrong: I think it's fantastic that Apple will release and SDK, but the entire bloody thing was over-blown.

Yes, Apple could have stopped it, but they didn't. And every day the iPhone was in the news.

It's a win-win situation for Apple, and now with the iPhone SDK announced, as Michael Scott would say, "it's win-win.... win."



Oh, by the way, Testudo is here to be the Ying to the fan boy Yang. Yea, he can be a wang about it, but balance is good.

Carry on. :)

Apple may have held back on announcing the SDK since the iPhone and iTouch devices are probably running a variant of 10.5.

That being said they were still working on the final details of the security implementation. Since the gold master for 10.5 has most likely gone out... its safe to make a prediction about the SDK now.

Had Leopard not been delayed, I believe the SDK would have been released far earlier, I don't feel it is coincidence that this announcement follows so closely the announcement of the actual ship date of Mac OS X 10.5.

Keep in mind that there are issues with the new iMacs as well; I have a feeling all this new hardware was supposed to be running on Mac OS X 10.5, they had to do some things that made it work with 10.4, From day one I felt there was really no reason to hack the hardware for development when I knew this would all be moot when Leopard came out. The iPhone supports syncing notes and to-do lists with 10.5. The iPhone will only get more powerful now.

This is something early adopters should have realized, this is why I knew I was going to wait til spring to purchase. I told the early adopters at work that I wasn't going to officially support the iPhone on the mail servers until Mac OS X 10.5 Server was out, now I can set them all up on iCal Server, Mail Servers amd so forth, no point fixing things twice.

I think Apple wanted a successful launch quarter for the iPhone under their belt before opening the device up to 3rd parties. Can you imagine the headache of dealing with a whole new device in the public's hands with a whole new OS (it is Leopard, after all), along with dealing with the potential issues of 3rd party native apps on the device.

Whether Apple always meant to open the device up to 3rd party native apps and/or when they meant to do so is certainly up for debate... but I think most people agree it was inevitable.

I bought Apple at $18 "back in the day". My little 2500 shares split to 5,000 shares. Now look. Over 170. Holy mackerel. 3 for 1 split and "bartender, Macbook Pro's for everyone, on me!".

Apple may have held back on announcing the SDK since the iPhone and iTouch devices are probably running a variant of 10.5.

The 'problem' with that thought is that announcing an SDK relies on absolutely nothing. Apple announced the iPhone well before it was done. Its not like they're releasing the SDK this month. Its still 4 months away, at least.

And it can't be too hard to say "Once we've got the iPhone finished, out the door, and in people's hands, we're going to focus on making an SDK for you guys to build kick-a** apps with. But we want to make sure we get everything right, get the phone out there, and give people time to see what it does, how it works, and how best to utilize it (otherwise we'll just get 15 different "mail" apps and a bunch of stuff people will make without thinking it out and making a bunch of crapware), so we're taking it slow. And we want to make sure the SDK and underlying OS are as secure as possible before we do the rest."

before Xmas. Why February? Too long to wait IMO. Get a move on Apple.

The reason they choose to announce certain things at certain times is purly business related, remember, Apple is a Publicly held company and the SEC has rules and regulations about such things. If they announce things too early it looks like they are trying to pad the stock prices, and for some reason if they cannot deliver on those promises they will have major (Enronlike) issues with the SEC.

Publicly held companies can't announce products in advance without opening themselves up to stupid shareholders' lawsuits. If they announce something and the stock price dips, WHAM, they get hit with a lawsuit. That's why they're so tight lipped until product releases.

The biggest problem you have is not being 'cautious' in your statements. Don't say "Mac OS X is going to fully support all current computers", say "Mac OS X SHOULD fully support all current computers, within some limitations". (Then again, that wasn't a shareholder suit, that was a consumer suit).

The reason they choose to announce certain things at certain times is purly business related, remember, Apple is a Publicly held company and the SEC has rules and regulations about such things. If they announce things too early it looks like they are trying to pad the stock prices, and for some reason if they cannot deliver on those promises they will have major (Enronlike) issues with the SEC.

I've yet to see the SEC whoop-up on Microsoft's asses for any or all of their slightly off-schedule projects.

And Enronlike issues weren't caused by pre-announcing products. It was caused by doing all sorts of semi-legal tactics with their books to make it look like they had a lot more income/assets then they did. MS had a similar issue, where they were caught funneling some earnings to later quarters to make it seem they were beating estimates more often then not.

roehlstation Yes, I'm allowing you to gloat now. testudo testudo right on I think Testudo is spot-on. If it had been formally announced, a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth could have been saved, plus plenty of negative publicity.

Actually, it would have made no difference-- the hacks will continue even now, and after the SDK is released, unabated-- my prediction.

The tone of the above 2 replies implies that people were, well, FORCED into just HAVING to make unofficial apps. Such demands in life, it's almost unbearable to rise to the occasion and save the world!

... you have to wonder what negotiations have been going on with service providers and issues internal to Apple. If some providers are 2.5G and some become 3G and some, like AT&T, have locked sim cards and some, like in France, don't and all will be affected by 3rd party apps - it gets geometrically increasingly complex. The computer had decades to work these things out. The Palm had a year, but it was a relatively simple system that took years to integrate into a phone.

The fact that Nokia hasn't done this yet, means it is no mean feat and no one has really integrated a real computer os onto a phone like Apple is saying it is doing now.

Jobs should have said, "We will work towards opening the system to others." But I doubt it was merely ego and control issues that were the only drivers in his decision not to.

I remember when Apple made the laughable decision to 'simplify' the product line, which really just meant...we are in dire straights and need to report a profit soon. And people...just fell in line, and loved their new lack of choices, and Jobs was a genius. Sad really. Jobs was right, though, that Apple needed to report a profit, or people would keep declaring the company dead...not buy..and it would be dead.

Anyway, Apple has reversed course on this SDK, which is a no brainer really...just shocking they got tripped up on this decision...almost the biggest mistake of Jobs career, but he caught it in time. And...

as for my initial ramble...it is also significant that Apple has completely backed off the simplified product line, to have a range of products...because choice is good...its real good. You need something, they have it, except the low cost tower.

And they'll figure that one out, someday...most likely.

It is refreshing and positive to see that Apple (Jobs?) can admit that it made a mistake and act to correct it quickly, rather than to stubbornly ignore the market for decades like it did with the one-button mouse. Bravo.

Unless Steve's comment was taken out of context did I read that right with him saying the iPhone is the most advance phone ever? Steve, needs to open his eyes more to what other competitors are offering in this global wireless market. While I like the iPhone I also admit it lacks a lot of features found in similar smartphones. Some of those lacking features are bluetooth file transfer, push email, GPS, HSPA, removable battery, Micro SDHC flash memory card port, Flash Player support and lastly not voiding customers warranty when they get the device unlocked for use with any GSM wireless carrier.