The iPhone as a Platform

Michael Gartenberg | June 15, 2007, 12:21 PM

Some discussion on the iPhone and third party applications from both Dave Winer and Robert Scoble here and here. I've talked about the issue in the past but it's worth re-visiting. I do think Safari is an interesting way to bring a certain class of applications to the device but I also understand why a developer would want to create and sell applications that can work locally on the device and deliver a richer experience (although the Digg application is a rather cool example of what can be done). It's just clear to me it's not going to happen anytime soon and I still don't buy into the carrier security issue as ATT offers any number of Windows Mobile and other platforms that support third party apps.

Robert, Steve Jobs isn't naive but there any number of reasons why we won't see a generic SDK anytime soon but still see a myriad of third party applications for the iPhone. Phones are not PCs and Apple may want to keep control of what goes on the device. That doesn't mean we won't see new functionality from third parties, it may just look more like the current iPod model, where I can buy third party games but they come through the iTunes store and it's not open to any developer.

I'm not sure that, Skype is the issue at the moment. I've tried using Skype on any number of WiFi enabled handhelds on different platforms (including devices that run on Cingular's network) and while you can make it work, it doesn't work well and WiFi isn't nearly ubiquitous enough for this to be a real threat to any carrier (especially given current carrier pricing models).