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iPhone: don't think of it as a computer

Via Rafe Colburn I just found a NY Times article that confirms Apple will tightly restrict what apps are allowed on the iPhone: 

Steve Jobs: "I don’t want people to think of this as a computer [...] These are devices that need to work, and you can’t do that if you load any software on them [...] That doesn’t mean there’s not going to be software to buy that you can load on them coming from us. It doesn’t mean we have to write it all, but it means it has to be more of a controlled environment."

Controlled environment? You mean like a Java VM? Probably not. I suspect what Mr. Jobs means is that 3rd party software vendors will have to pay Apple for the right to  develop software for the iPhone, but details of that plan have not yet been worked out.

Dave in Mac Comments[6]

Tags: java apple

Comments:

All is not lost; there is a web browser on that sucker right? Web apps, baby. Did you really want to be writing Cocoa apps anyway?

Sounds like the same programmability as the wii, in fact.

Posted by Patrick Mueller on January 11, 2007 at 07:37 PM EST #

Yeah, that's a good point. I have zero desire to write native Mac OS apps or native apps in general. I'd prefer to write apps that work everywhere.

Posted by Dave Johnson on January 12, 2007 at 12:04 AM EST #

It almost sounds like they are going for the game console business model. At least in terms of a closed SDK and very controlled software releases. The mod scene that gets Linux running on consoles will probably be interested in the iPhone. :-)

Posted by matthew on January 12, 2007 at 12:15 PM EST #

I heard it will be Safari. I wonder if it will be a full-featured version, i.e. allow XMLHttpRequest and such.

Posted by Greg Reimer on January 12, 2007 at 03:23 PM EST #

The browser on the wii is Opera; supports JS, XMLHttpRequest, and runs a fairly complicated dojo-based app we are developing right now. And Flash 7.

And Dashboard is part of the picture, no? That also assumes a certain level of programmability in the web ui layer (including canvas).

Posted by Patrick Mueller on January 12, 2007 at 04:09 PM EST #

Yeah, that's the ticket: Safari/Dashboard is the platform, not OS X. It runs on Mac, the iPhone and soon on Windows.

Posted by Dave Johnson on January 12, 2007 at 05:09 PM EST #

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