No Third-party Apps on iPhone Says Jobs 778
wyldeone writes "In an interview with the New York Times, Steve Jobs confirms reports that the recently-announced iPhone will not allow third party applications to be installed. According to Jobs, 'These are devices that need to work, and you can't do that if you load any software on them.' In a similar vein, Jobs said in a MSNBC article that, 'Cingular doesn't want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up.'"
I call BS (Score:5, Informative)
The relevant quote...
In other words, the reporter doesn't know squat about the actual circumstances regarding third-party apps and is blowing farts in the wind, making speculative and general statements in the hope that someone will imagine that he's right when something he says turns out to vaguely resemble the truth.
Re:Right... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Right... (Score:5, Informative)
Nope, this is about Jobs' control issues.
Re:Right... (Score:2, Informative)
From TFA:
Hmm. Apple doesn't have to write it all but you can buy softwares. Do the elves write them while Jobs sleeps? The existence of softwares not written by Apple fits the definition of third party apps, doesn't it? But no,
What Jobs is saying is that software developers needs to work closely with Apple since Apple will control the quality. Geeks who like to hack their iPhone may not like it, but really, do normal customers complain if third party apps are checked by Apple to make sure that they work without major glitches?
Re:Right... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Right... (Score:5, Informative)
You see, real smartphones let you install whatever software you want onto your phone. Hell, even many (most?) non-smart phones can run Java apps. That's certainly the kind of functionality Cingular customers are used to.
What Apple's doing with the iPhone, OTOH, is what Verizon customers are used to: the carrier tells you what you can do with your phone. You buy it, but you don't really own it. They say it's about quality assurance, and to some degree it might even be, but what it's really about is making sure you pay for extra features, instead of downloading freeware or writing your own. They think that if you're getting extra value out of their service, you owe them for it. But even Verizon doesn't go that far with their smartphones!
There might be apps written by third parties on the iPhone, but who writes them is pretty much irrelevant, because you can't write or install them without going through Cingular and/or Apple. They'll charge for the SDK, for testing apps, and for making apps available to users, and those costs will be passed onto the end user in the form of (1) paying to download apps and (2) limited selection because amateurs can't afford to develop.
Re:Right... (Score:2, Informative)
a $3000 phone that plays mp3s and has a calendar
nice try. to get to $3000 over 2 years, you are assuming that it'll cost $100/month to use the iphone. by that reasoning, the new treo is a $2800 phone since the phone itself is $400. and fyi, cingular offers an unlimited data plan for smartphones for $20/month: http://www.cingular.com/cell-phone-service//cell-
and the iphone obviously is more than an mp3 player and a calendar. since you missed the keynote, here it is: http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/j47d52oo/ev
Re:He didn't say "no" to more applications though (Score:4, Informative)
For example, you can go right now and download the BREW SDK, which is used for writing apps that will run on Verizon phones. It's totally free.
But you know what? There aren't really all that many apps for Verizon phones--certainly not as many as for other carriers' phones that run unsigned Java apps--and none of those apps are free. If you want a game or utility, you have to buy it for $5-$10 or pay a monthly subscription. And if someone hasn't written the thing you have in mind, forget about writing it yourself, unless you think you can sell it to a big audience.
See, you can get the SDK and write apps for free, but if you want to run it on actual hardware, you have to get a new phone and send it away to be authorized for debugging. Ka-ching! If you want others to be able to run your app, you have to pay to get it tested and signed, then strike up a deal with Verizon to get them to put it in their store. You can't really release it for free, of course, because you've just invested hundreds of dollars in it.
End result: only mass-appeal apps get written at all, and there's no open source or even freeware.
Oh, and one more thing: it's not really about quality assurance. People are smart enough to realize that if they install a crappy app, it's their own fault, and they can uninstall it. This is really about the carrier (Verizon/Cingular) and manufacturer (Qualcomm/Apple) seeing a chance to make a buck by crippling their hardware.
rtfa people (Score:5, Informative)
Jobs is explicit quoted as saying:
Nowhere does it say there will be no third party apps available.
it's Apple, not Cingular (Score:3, Informative)
The source of the restriction must be Apple, not Cingular.
Re:Right... (Score:5, Informative)
2007 looks like an interesting year for smartphones: the iPhone on the one hand, and OpenMoko and Greenphone for open Linux-based platforms on the other.
Re:Right... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:OpenMoko (Score:1, Informative)
http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/200
Re:Right... (Score:4, Informative)
Jobs is looking for the top buyers who will pay nearly anything for a phone that just plain works and has simple email/text messaging and maybe a web browser. In this market, the iPod is really just a bonus.
My only question is, is this a GSM phone that will let me change out the chip so I can use it around the world? Unfortunately, I don't think so. Anyway, my dad will surely buy it in the next year. He's slowly converting to the entire Apple line (First an ipod, then 2 imacs, now this).
$20 plan not available... (Score:3, Informative)
Also there is a requirement for these plans to be paired with at least a $40/month voice plan (and not forgetting the $5/month fees that sound like taxes but aren't) that's $85/month - for 2 years that's a minimum of $2540 (including the cheaper phone).
Want voice dialing? Cingular will sell you one for another $120 ($5/mo)- http://www.cingular.com/cell-phone-service/servic
This device looks great but when they went with Cingular they had to get greedy...
Re:Right... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Right... (Score:2, Informative)
FTFA:
You call that moronically shackled? What, were you hoping to run Linux on it? Life's rough, I guess.
Re:Right... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Right... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Right... (Score:2, Informative)
My Moto V551 is hacked. I changed the flex on it, made my own theme, and I can change certain aspects of the phone that one is not supposed to be able to change, such as frequencies. Even though it is a closed phone, It, like OS X can be hacked. Motomodders has more details on them. http://www.motomodders.net/ [motomodders.net]
Re:Nail on the Head. (Score:4, Informative)
The article below in case the link dies.
Japan far ahead of iPhone
Cellphones there used for everything from buying milk to booking a train
January 12, 2007
Bruce Wallace
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
TOKYO-Tomoaki Kurita presides over racks of cellphones lined up outside his shop on a busy sidewalk in Harajuku, Tokyo's catwalk of youth street culture where people attracted by the riot of phone options can stop to flip open and fondle the latest models of what the Japanese call a "keitai."
From behind his busy counter, Kurita giggles when asked about the excitement in the United States over the arrival of Apple's iPhone cellphone that also could be used to download music and surf the Internet.
"Sounds like business as usual," he says.
As stock markets swooned and techies buzzed over Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs' long-awaited entry into the cellphone market, Japanese consumers could be excused for wondering: Why the fuss?
Many Japanese had a hard time buying Jobs' hype about "reinventing" the phone. The revolution is well underway in Japan, where cellphones are used for everything from navigating your way home by GPS to buying movie tickets and updating your blog from wherever you are.
Oh yeah. Japanese cellphones also download music, surf the Net and make phone calls.
They've been a natural extension of daily life the past few years, spurred by the Japanese decision to be the first country to upgrade to third-generation cellphone networks, or 3G, which increased broadband capabilities and allowed for greater, faster transmission of voice and data. Apple's iPhone, by comparison, will operate on a 2G network.
It was 3G that sparked the boom in music downloads that makes it common for phones to be used as portable digital music players here.
And it is 3G that has led the Japanese into a world where they can watch live TV on their phones, use the phone as a charge card to ride trains or buy milk at the corner store or take a taxi, and conduct conference calls between as many as five people. Ticket Pia, Japan's major entertainment ticketing agency, has been selling email tickets to cellphones since 2003.
Most observers contend the U.S. has begun to close the gap on cellphone use in Japan, South Korea and Europe. Music downloads by cellphone are rising in the U.S. - and the long-term threat to iPod's lead in downloads was a major force behind Apple's entry into cellphones. Other functions are following.
"We plan to introduce one-way video conferencing in the U.S. this year," says Melissa Elkins of LG Electronics MobileCOMM, referring to a function that would allow one person to be visible to the other during a phone call. Two-way telephony has been available in South Korea for about 18 months, Elkins says.
But the biggest difference between the U.S. and countries like Japan is the culture the keitai has created. To wait for a light on a Tokyo street corner or ride a train these days is to see crowds of people with their heads down, thumbs pumping as they send photos, text message or play online games on their phone. Increasingly, they are reading books and manga comics on their phones, too.
The keitai has become an extension of personality.
There is software to create a personalized home page on the cellphone. Young men and women customize their phones, hang posses of tiny dolls off them, cover them with stickers and paints.
"I like it because it's cute," says Mami Nawa, 23, as she shows off the dial pad she has painted in purple and pink to