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Apple iPhone SDK press conference |
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 March 6, 2008, CA, Apple announced some very cool stuff about the long expected iPhone SDK. Topics include computing for corporations, game developments, remote debugger, Salesforce.com, AIM for iPhone, App Store, and a $100 million iFund.
iPhone Market ShareSteve Jobs started by sharing the market statistics, in Q4 2007, iPhone took 28% US SmartPhone market, compared to 41% from RIM. iPhone browsing constitutes 71% of US mobile browser usage.
MS Exchange and ActiveSyncApple has licensed ActiveSync and built the Exchange support to enable push email, push calendaring, push contacts, and global address lists, and the ability to remote wipe it. The same email app, calendar app, and contact app that customers are using now will be able to get information directly from the Exchange server.
Native APIs Staring today, Apple open the same native APIs and tools to third party developers to build native iPhone apps.
Scott explained that the iPhone OS is comprised of four layers, the core OS, core services, media layer, and Cocoa Touch. In addition, a comprehensive set of tools are also available to developers, including Xcode, source control management system, subversion, CVS, and SDK documentation. The three things that everyone would like the most:
- a Remote Debugger, enables one to run the app live on an iPhone and debugging it from the Mac.
- an Interface Builder, enables on to drag and drop interface assets from the library onto a canvas.
- an iPhone Simulator that runs on a Mac and simulates the entire API stack.
Games, AOL, and Salesforce.comEA and Sega showed Spore and Super Monkey Ball games on iPhone, built with the SDK. In addition, AIM and Salesforce.com also did demos.
Distribution Apple will run an App Store for developers to distribute their apps. There is no charge for free apps. A 30% cut for priced apps. The distribution mechanism will be available June as a free software update.
iFundKleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers will invest $100 Million of venture capital in companies developing applications for iPhone & iPod touch.
The SDK is freely available at here:
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program/ |
