In an earlier post questioning if the iPhone was a smartphone or not I made mention that applications for the device to be released by Apple could challenge the notion of what a smartphone is. The idea of useful widgets for download and eventually opening the iPhone to third party developers has gained traction with recent statements from Steve Jobs during a shareholders meeting.

Jobs mentioned that allowing third party development for the iPhone is something that Apple "is wrestling with". My belief is that they want to maintain control of the user experience to some extent, but also want to gain acceptance in the enterprise market as a workable alternative to other smartphone devices.

By holding back on announcing the ability to develop for the iPhone, Apple gets one more bite at front page tech news. I would not be surprised to find a very slick development environment already in place at Apple that could hasten creation of "approved" apps for the iPhone. I think the concern from a sales point of view is that competing applications for the iPhone could eat at potential profits of sales for add-ons.

If third party apps are developed for the iPhone what would you like to see? What do you think is coming down the road?

Labels: Applications, iPhone, smartphone, third party

A smartphone, as is defined as a "cellular handset using an open, commercial operating system that supports third-party applications" says ABI Research. As such the iPhone being unveiled as a closed phone to third party developers does not truly qualify as a smartphone.

This is ridiculous. Perhaps the folks deciding what makes a phone "smart" should make those definitions based on usability and capability regardless of who controls the reins on releasing new software for the device.

With OS X running on the iPhone it is incredible to me to find "experts" portraying the phone as something less than a smartphone. The expectation is that third party developers of lesser phones somehow make better software than what a single source (in this case Apple) is capable of.

Wake up! Nobody has multi-touch gesturing except Apple and you can bet the farm the single source software provider will be pushing the envelope beyond what others have been able to do for the competing devices. With visual voicemail, Safari and widgets to start I find it surprising the "experts" might not want to take a closer look at what "smart" means.

Labels: OS X, smartphone