Apple Opening Up iPhone Developer Program

[MacRumors]

When Apple announced the iPhone Developers program in March, they made it clear that during the beta period that they would limit the number of approved developers. At WWDC, Steve Jobs revealed that of the 25,000 applicants interested in the program, only 4,000 had been accepted. From these 4,000 developers, Apple was able to launch the App Store with over 500 applications.

Based on reports from developers, it seems Apple has opened the program up and dropped the "beta" designation. Multiple developers have reported that they have been accepted into the $99/year developer program which allows them to install their applications directly onto their iPhone and also submit their apps for inclusion into the iTunes App Store.

The opening up of the program should motivate more developers to start serious development on the iPhone. It should also eliminate the non disclosure agreement which prevented developers from discussing their future applications.

We have added a new iPhone Developer forum to encourage developer participation and discussion. Meanwhile, Mac developers are also welcome to participate in our long standing Mac Developer forum.


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[Doodledoo]

It's about time they did

[a1016neo]

More Apps for Me!

[admanimal]

Let's hope this doesn't slow down the already kind of slow app review process.

It gets especially annoying when you have important updates that your users need and have to wait until Apple reviews them.

[l0ne]

... except we still are under NDA and it's my personal opinion that it won't lift anytime soon.

So there.

[yoman]

Originally Posted by l0ne

... except we still are under NDA and it's my personal opinion that it won't lift anytime soon.

So there.

that sucks....

[dizastor]

Originally Posted by l0ne

... except we still are under NDA and it's my personal opinion that it won't lift anytime soon.

So there.

Which means no Adium

At least according to the Adium devs.

[yoman]

Originally Posted by Doodledoo

It's about time they did

I was about to type the same thing. Now things can really get going. I'm looking forward to apps made from major mobile Development companies, Skyscape (medical), Adobe, TeleNav, EA Games, etc...

[philwa2]

has anyone recieved anything back from the developer program once they had purchased the iphone developer program subscription through the apple online store?

I had confirmation of my order (and it being electronically delivered)- but havent recieved any instruction on what to do next??

[jackjason]

so..
skype (with skyout)
mms,
video camera reocding,

I am waitting for above 3 apps..

[rstansby]

Originally Posted by jackjason

so..
skype (with skyout)
mms,
video camera reocding,

I am waitting for above 3 apps..

Fortunately for you the iPhone has the ability to load 3rd party software so there is a good chance that you will see applications that do these exact functions. No cell phone is perfect for everyone. They are all missing features that some people want. With most cell phones you are stuck with what comes from the factory with little or no ability to upgrade. And once a new version of a phone comes out the old phone is pretty much abandoned as far as support goes.

Apple rocks.

[sjo]

Originally Posted by jackjason

so..
skype (with skyout)
mms,
video camera reocding,

I am waitting for above 3 apps..

dont hold your breath waiting for those three particular apps

[JAYGEE]

Any chance of Microsoft putting msn messenger on the iPhone/iPod touch?

No I didn't think so

[nigrunze]

Originally Posted by JAYGEE

Any chance of Microsoft putting msn messenger on the iPhone/iPod touch?

No I didn't think so

They can barely manage to make a good version for Mac. Once they add video/audio chat to the desktop Mac version, that's when they'll create an iPhone app. But it'll cost money, and only let us see who is online but not send them any messages, and it'll only let us set our user status to invisible.

[twoodcc]

now this is very good. looking forward to more apps!

[7on]

Couldn't an app developer just put a .ipa file on their website and let anyone download it to load into iTunes? I figure that'd be a way to bypass Apple's restrictions. Or are the apps signed to your iTMS account?

[firewood]

Originally Posted by 7on

Couldn't an app developer just put a .ipa file on their website and let anyone download it to load into iTunes? I figure that'd be a way to bypass Apple's restrictions. Or are the apps signed to your iTMS account?

Putting an IPA file on a website may or may not be compliant with agreeing to the SDK license; and developer .ipa files won't load unless the device is provisioned with a matching device ID and app ID (actually, they might load, but they'll crash hard on launch). Provisioning is tied to Apple and the developer's (paid) account.

ad hoc sharing might work for up to 100 users, but that requires each user to provide their device ID to the developer for the provisioning.

[gnasher729]

Originally Posted by 7on

Couldn't an app developer just put a .ipa file on their website and let anyone download it to load into iTunes? I figure that'd be a way to bypass Apple's restrictions. Or are the apps signed to your iTMS account?

The problem is not any restriction on Apple's side - it is an incompatibility (real, or perceived) between Apple's NDA and the GPL.

When you write software using open source components licensed under the GPL, the license says (roughly) that you have to publish the source code for your software. On the other hand, to develop software for the iPhone, you must agree to an NDA which roughly says you cannot publish any Apple trade secrets. If publishing the source code for your software means publishing Apple trade secrets, then this is a no go. There is no workaround for this; you need to agree to the NDA to get the development tools, so _how_ you publish your application doesn't make any difference.

What would make a difference: If Apple changes the NDA to make clear that publishing the source code of an iPhone application does _not_ breach the NDA, or if Apple gave a specific developer (like the Adium team) permission to publish their source code in order to get an iPhone application developed.

[goosnarrggh]

Originally Posted by gnasher729

What would make a difference: If Apple changes the NDA to make clear that publishing the source code of an iPhone application does _not_ breach the NDA, or if Apple gave a specific developer (like the Adium team) permission to publish their source code in order to get an iPhone application developed.

Or, if the Adium codebase were composed exclusively of contributions from a relatively small team of individuals, or else if all contributors to the Adium project have thus far been required to transfer copyright ownership over to the administrator of the project (thus the ownership of the application was not in doubt), and if all copyright holders agreed to a dual-license distribution scheme moving forward, then they could keep the iPhone-specific modifications to the codebase secret under a proprietary license, while continuing to distribute the generic code for all other targets under the GPL.

[magi.sys]

I sure hope someone works on getting MobileTerminal and MobileFinder into the Appstore. I would think these two apps would be legit. Would also love to see Firefox, Thunderbird (with GPG support), Gizmo5, etc.