A New World for the iPhone

Apple (AAPL) just finished telling software developers about the new toolkit that can be used to create non-Apple applications for the iPhone. In one sense, it's about a geeky an event as you can get.

But it's a big step to making the iPhone more business-user friendly. The iPhone sorely missed having Blackberry-style push e-mail. It's probably the single biggest reason more business users skipped the iPhone in favor of a Blackberry or Treo or any device that would support Good Technology's push e-mail. This basically means that Apple has to let developers make the iPhone work with Microsoft's Exchange, which must make Steve Jobs gag.

Look for other corporate stuff to emerge. Cisco (CSCO) will be putting its stuff like secure corporate Wi-Fi and IP telephony on the iPhone -- which could make it possible for an iPhone to make calls on the corporate network inside the building and cell network outside.

And of course thousands of clever developers will create software for the iPhone that we can't even imagine right now.

Is this big? Well, it will certainly help the iPhone win business customers, and it will mean that Blackberrys and Treos will have to get a whole lot better or they're going to lose sales to Apple. John Doerr, the king of tech VCs, was at the event and said: "Today we're witnessing history, the creation of the third great platform. It's bigger than the personal computer." But Doerr is peddling a fund -- called the iFund -- that will invest in companies developing for the new iPhone platform. Good luck making it bigger than the PC. (Doerr apparently couldn't get the ifund.com URL.)

Comments

[Tom B]

Great piece.

"This basically means that Apple has to let developers make the iPhone work with Microsoft's Exchange, which must make Steve Jobs gag."

Blame IT managers. USERS would have dispensed with the creaky old Outlook/Exchange platform ages ago. But since they haven't-- well, it looks like Apple's ActiveSync one-ups RIMM's.

BTW: AAPL and MSFT go way back. MSFT developed the first non-Apple apps for the Mac, unless I am mistaken. Excel, etc.

[The Reptile]

Kevin, did you even pay attention to what AAPL announced? First up was the enterprise announcement where there would be support for MS Exchange's. The way that AAPL positioned this is that there is no 'Blackberry-Connect' service between you and your e-mail servers. That means the only time an outage will occur is if your corporate e-mail was down or if the cellphone network/WiFi network crashed. This is to be released in their 2.0 upgrade in June. So, no developers are required for this to take place.

Next up was the SDK (Software Developer's Kit). This is what would be developed by programmers. The Beta of the SDK is now out and programmers have tools to develop programs now for release in June. The SDK has tools to test and simulate an iPhone on a Mac. The programs will be sold on a 70/30 split basis via a new Applications Store found directly on the iPhone, though with an option to purchase on iTunes.

As usual, Apple rolled out some companies who develop software to talk about how great the SDK was. If what they say is true, then we're in for a fair amount of software for business, entertainment and productivity when June rolls around. Hopefully, they'll be on their way to announcing the 3G iPhone.

[BMTOCA]

"This basically means that Apple has to let developers make the iPhone work with Microsoft's Exchange, which must make Steve Jobs gag."

Your comment basically means:

A. you didn't read the account of the presentation today, or

B. your fishing for readers using stupidity as your bait, or

C. you don't know your ass from a hole in the ground!


If it's A, next time do your homework before letting your ignorance show.

If it's B, to bad that you can't depend on your "journalistic talent" to hold readers.

If it's C, well, how is it that you have been able to fool Seeking Alpha.


Mr. Maney, you have embarrassed yourself and Seeking Alpha.

[REB]

Besides forecasting a bigger hand held iPod game device this year, the fast development time, 2 weeks for the demos shown, will encourage a lot of developers to try out the free SDK. This will show them how to develop software for the Mac, on a Mac with most of the same tools that come free with their Mac purchase. Corporations can avoid the server charges for Blackberry functionality while developing corporate programs with the functionality of desktop software. This will mean a lot more programmers familiar with OS X, and software ports. It's big news for the iPhone business; but also a halo effect for OS X and corporate IT familiarity.

[Tom B]

"This will show them how to develop software for the Mac, on a Mac with most of the same tools that come free with their Mac purchase."

The camel sticks his nose under the tent. It is said that once developers try Apple's Xcode, everything else looks old-fashioned.

[AdamC]

iPhone platform will be bigger than the PCs, why? because it is a mobile computer which you can bring it to anywhere. Most of the everyday stuffs like surfing, checking emails, write your blog, can be done by it easily besides listening to music, watching videos and answering calls.
And now gamers can play games on it.
Give it a few years you will be eating your words.