So Who's Working on Skype for iPhone? Anyone?
We are excited about creating a vibrant third-party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users.”
Though the firmware update that disabled third-party iPhone applications and bricked iPhones uncoupled from AT&T’s network might have led you to think otherwise, Apple is actually excited about the prospect of a third-party developer community for the iPhone. So much so that it’s planning to release an official SDK (software development kit) for the device.
In a letter posted on Apple’s Web site this morning, CEO Steve Jobs said the company will release an iPhone SDK early next year. “Let me just say it: We want native third-party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February,” Jobs wrote. “We are excited about creating a vibrant third-party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users.”
Jobs offered few other concrete details beyond that, but an Apple-sanctioned kit, even a limited one, will likely be embraced by a developer community that’s created scores of applications for the device despite Apple’s best efforts to stop them.
