People who think this should have just happened overnight have no idea just how much work goes into something like this. Making a third party software environment that is reliable, consistent, supportable, and secure takes a lot more work that the (admittedly impressive) work that the hacking/hobbyist community has done. If only I had a nickel for every time my Treo 700p crashed or was utterly hosed or unstable because of one garbage app or another. Certainly Apple could adopt the free-for-all model, but Apple prefers a, shall we say, more "refined" experience when it comes to consumer products, especially for its first foray into a major new marketplace. And that necessarily includes the iTunes selection and syncing paradigm.
The comments above (and the couple below this, and probably about 99% of the rest in this thread) typify the reaction by those who have literally no idea just how much work goes into developing such an initiative. I wouldn't go so far as to say "ignorant" or "completely unable to see the big picture beyond what new little icon they'll have on their phone", but close. Apple is taking baby steps here, and an SDK allowing third party development is a massive undertaking if you want to have an element of control over the process, and the beautiful integration people have come to expect, overall, from Apple products.
"What's going on in Cupertino?" Please. You have NO IDEA how many people are working on this, and how high a priority this is for Apple.
