Apple Ready To Open iPhone to Third-Party Apps

Apple has scheduled an event to present the Software Development Kit (SDK) that can open up its iPhone to third-party native applications. It also will present new iPhone features for the enterprise.

Press invitations went out this week for the iPhone Software Roapmap on Thursday, March 6, at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. The original launch date for the SDK had been in February.

A Blackberry Competitor?

The SDK will allow thirty-party developers to create applications for the iPhone. Up until now, outside developers’ offerings have had to run within the Safari browser on the iPhone, not on the iPhone itself.

The invitation promises “some exciting new enterprise features.” Some observers have speculated that Apple will position the iPhone as a competitor to the BlackBerry, which would require Apple to address a variety of compatibility, application and security issues.

Avi Greengart, an analyst with Current Analysis, noted there are also issues about how Apple expects developers to use the SDK. For instance, he said, “can a developer post the application on their Web site, or does it have to go through iTunes?” There are also questions about how users will load third-party apps onto iPhones, whether Apple gets a cut of apps revenue, and whether certain kinds of apps are off-limits because Apple reserves them for itself.

Until we know the answers to these and other questions, Greengart noted, it isn’t possible to estimate the impact that the much-awaited SDK might have on opening up the iPhone.

New Business Models?

Apple may also be open to new carrier arrangements. COO Tim Cook has been quoted in news media as telling investors that “we’re not married to any business models.”

Some observers take this to mean that Apple is reconsidering its exclusive-in-the-U.S. relationship with AT&T, but Greengart said there isn’t “any indication that Apple is reconsidering that deal.” He characterized…