iPhone has become a dangerously closed platform. Steve Jobs keeps saying that security is the primary reason why Apple is not releasing an SDK. I call this an absolute bull shit. For years, Symbian and Windows Mobile have provided excellent and powerful SDKs for developers and there has not been a single incidence of a rogue mobile application bringing the entire network down or eating the mobile user alive. There are many developers whose only source of income is the shareware they sell for $19.99 through handngo. A open platform like Windows Mobile has created huge communities which hack these mobile devices to death, thus enhancing the end user experience in endless ways.
Apple's plans are pretty clear. By locking down the application platform, they can create their own applications and sell it through the iTunes music store, just like the way they are selling the $5 games for iPod. Allowing 3rd parties to develop software will flood the market with iPhone applications, in which case, it will become difficult for Apple to sell their own. For example, most people use Firefox on Mac, a 3rd party software than Apple's own Safari. Similar things might happen if Apple opens up the iPhone platform.
Apple CEO thinks he is the first to market a smartphone, which unfortunately is not true. There are all sorts of 3rd party software, from a placeshifter to a VoIP client that are running on Windows Mobile without any security risks that anyone knows of. By not releasing an SDK, Apple has not only disappointed the developers, but also insulted them by claiming security as the reason. To me, a monkey-dancing, tongue-wagging, foul-mouthed CEO who chants "developers, developers" hundered times a day, sounds more 'sweet'er than the one who provides Web 2.0 as a solution for developing applications on a powerful mobile device.
