“These are devices that need to work, and you can’t do that if you load any software on them,” he said. “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.””
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/t...52&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
This quote from Jobs seems to contradict the prevailing view here and suggests that we will be able to install third party software on the iphone, after it is control tested by apple. Jobs is a perfectionist and I believe has learned enough from the palm example and does not want to repeat it.
Funny, my Palm has a lot of 3rd party software on it, and it
WORKS just fine. And Job's comment would also seem to suggest that it's going to be really difficult for hobby software writers to supply apps for the iPHone. And, frankly, it's that hobbyist software that adds most of the functionality to the Palm OS, at the most reasonable prices. Apple will certainly charge for the priviledge of testing and certifying software, and that cost will be borne by the software purchasers. Say goodbye to the kind of $10 apps that do so on the Palm platform. And Apple will certainly take a significant amount of time in certifying each app, and each significant update. Say goodbye to instant turn around of bug fixes, and rapid upgrades based on user suggestions.
cellmatrix said:
There is a lot of good software on the palm that I am a big fan of, but you have to admit there are a lot of crappy buggy palm programs which are misrepresented as finished products which waste people's time and money. It would be nice to have a mechanism to sift through these two categories of programs IMO and I believe that is what Jobs is proposing, we will see.
Yep, we'll see. While eliminating buggy software is a good idea, I'm not sure it's worth the cost of eliminating so much good, inexpensive software.
There is one thing I wonder about, though. If Apple opens up the platform at all, how will it prevent other 3rd party ISVs from writing apps? I guess the only way to buy & load software will be through the iTunes store. Say goodbye to price competition.
There will not likely be the equivilent of a Butler, or a TakePhone, or a FileZ for the iPhone. Nor an equivilent to PalmInternals or iRing. Apple may allow
applications, but I can't see them allowing alternatives to the built in functionality, nor utilities that extend or modify the built in functionality.