Apple To Announce Plans For 3rd-Party iPhone Software At WWDC
Right from the first announcement of iPhone at the beginning of 2007, many people (including me) said that Apple had made a mistake with their commercial strategy in making the iPhone a closed device - third-party iPhone applications represent a potentially significant revenue stream for Apple. Between January and now, however, Apple fans have been shouting blindly that third-party applications on mobile phones are a terrible idea: no-one ever installs third-party apps on phones, they say; and anyway, if you do install third-party apps, they make your phone crash.
I suspect these people are about to change their (i)tune; that those who have been saying that third-party apps are a bad idea, will soon be preaching the benefits of third-party apps on iPhone. Why? Because Apple’s about to do a U-turn on the matter of third-party application development.
Actually, though, it’s not really a U-turn at all. The truth is - iPhone was never going to be a closed device. Soon after Apple’s iPhone announcement, I received some information that the iPhone might not, in fact, be a closed device after all. Then Steve Jobs started saying in interviews that there would be after-market software software for iPhone, not all of it written by Apple. In recent days and weeks, he has been saying that Apple has listened to what people have been saying, and that they’re figuring out their plans for third-party software development at the moment - they just need a little more time.
So what are those plans? Well, next week, the Apple Word Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) takes place in San Francisco. With iPhone launching in a few weeks on June 29, I think it’s a near certain bet that Apple will announce some of its plans for letting Apple developers create applications for iPhone at WWDC. It should be pretty interesting. Although, if all they do is announce their plans for widget development, that might be a bit disappointing - the devil is in the detail there. Whether the company will be ready to let developers loose on iPhone right away is a different matter; but the truth is - as far as third-party apps on iPhone go, it’s now just a question of when, and no longer a question of if.
Asam Bashir wrote:
We can probably also expect annoucement of the European carrier at WWDC, and maybe first glimpse of the 3/3.5 G version of the phone, it’s already well advanced in development. If rumors are correct, the new MacBook Pro rev 3 (Santa Rosa/LED) will be released this week ahead of WWDC, I guess so Jobs can focus on the super-secret Leopard features. Morgan Stanley has a target of £150 per share of Apple, any comments on that?
Posted 04 Jun 2007 at 9:20 am ¶
Asam Bashir wrote:
PS, regarding providing details about third-party app development, I don’t think this will be announced at WWDC. Apple likes to be prepared and have at least some kind of SDK ready if it where to make offical annoucements. I doubt it has had time to do this, they really have just been thinking about the options and at this stage I don’t think it will be a major feature of any annoucement. WWDC will be clearly focused on Leopard, any other annoucements will be secondary. There’s too much at stake long term with Leopard and Apple will need to justify the delay in shipping.
Posted 04 Jun 2007 at 9:40 am ¶
simon wrote:
The 3G version of iPhone… well advanced in development? I wasn’t aware of that. My understanding was that the European version of iPhone would (disappointingly) be the same as the US version. I hope it does come with HSDPA… but from what I’ve heard, it won’t.
As for Leopard and MacBook Pro. I’m hoping for: the launch of a brand new laptop design (not simply a minor MacBook Pro rev) - a multi-touch tablet design could be very cool; a totally new Leopard look and feel (the current Mac OS X look and feel is dated now); along with Java SE 6 being ready for Leopard.
Hitting $150 per share requires iPhone to be a bigger success than anticipated (or other successful new consumer product launches e.g. totally new iPod, iPhone nano etc).
If iPhone works as advertised, then I think it will be a bigger success than many people are anticpating (it has some great USPs). There are some risks though: it might have lots of crash-bugs, the interface might be slower and more clunky than people are hoping for;and the virtual keyboard might be unusable.
I think we might see some revised price targets from analysts when people starting getting the iPhone in their hands.
Posted 04 Jun 2007 at 9:48 am ¶
simon wrote:
“Apple likes to be prepared and have at least some kind of SDK ready if it where to make offical annoucements.”
You’re right. But, I think they need to give developers a hint of what’s going on and maybe throw them a bone. I wouldn’t be surprised if they say - “Here’s how you develop widgets - available now. We need a bit more time to get the full app development ready - coming after Leopard.”
WWDC is a great opportunity to explain to Apple developers what they’ll be able to do with iPhone. I hope they take it.
Posted 04 Jun 2007 at 9:53 am ¶
Asam Bashir wrote:
It’s really hard to predict if there will be a new form factor for the Santa Rosa/LED MacBook Pro. I know you don’t like the looks but from Apple’s perspective it’s been one of the most succesful laptop designs, and as a long term Apple laptop user (my current machine is the 9th in a row) it’s been one of the best machines for wear and tear over a longer term. Even after several years they still look good which you couldn’t say for the older plastic form factors. There have been some patents from Apple regarding a combined latch/camera mechanism, so that would need a new form factor:
http://www.macnn.com/blogs/?p=132
So maybe the new form factor will be a thinner screen (since it’s using LED backlight) combined with latch/camera.
Don’t expect a radical new form factor at WWDC though. This will come later with the ultra sub-notebook, possibly with NAND flash only:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/02/16/apple_to_re_enter_the_sub_notebook_market.html
Apple speed-bumped the MacBook range a few weeks ago, so nothing new for the consumer line for a while.
Posted 04 Jun 2007 at 8:33 pm ¶
Asam Bashir wrote:
PPS - although the ultra sub-notebook is very advanced in development, maybe even ready for production (as indicated by recent orders of 13″ LED backlit screens which can’t be for MacBook since that was speed bumped just 2 weeks ago) it can’t start shipping before launch of Leopard as it will use Leopard only features. We might get a sneak preview at WWDC, but it would be impossible to ship it with Tiger. I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be very expensive with all the NAND flash, but that might be just what’s needed to stimulate the Japanese market. Again, another reason it wouldn’t be important to announce at WWDC. What will be an important announcement for WWDC is some Leopard hardware, but that will take the form of radically new designed 20 & 24″ iMacs..
Posted 04 Jun 2007 at 9:20 pm ¶
Asam Bashir wrote:
Ah, just seen, announcement of 64GB flash drive, so this is on the same time-frame as the speculated ultraportable.
http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/06/04/sandisk.ssd.64gb/
Posted 04 Jun 2007 at 9:48 pm ¶
Asam Bashir wrote:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/06/05mbp.html
MacBook Pro rev 3 - so, no new form factor, just screaming fast machines…
Posted 05 Jun 2007 at 3:06 pm ¶