iPhonefreak width="190"

There is a bunch of speculation today about an SDK being released for iPhone apps in January, started by a Business Week article. Let me just add a quote… "Sources familiar with the company’s plans tell BusinessWeek.com that Apple will release a software-development kit for the iPhone in early 2008."

OK… now we know for sure.

UPDATE 10/17: I guess we really do know for sure… Steve just released a statement.

It’s fun to think about… agreed. I also agree with most analysts that it would be a smart, if not inevitable, move for Apple. I believe it’s coming… kindof… but will always have a level of control that we like to dislike. They’ve got a very specific direction for their mobile device, obviously, and they’re sticking with it.

I think we’re all helping shape what will become Apple’s SDK… and their developer relations strategy. When Apple doesn’t include everything we want right away, we still want it now, and are very vocal and specific about it.

We’re Apple’s focus group… over a million strong.

I basically agree with… jack of all trades, master of none. But I think Apple understands, better than most, that this adage can be customized with great planning, realism, and marketing… among other things. There’s really no way Apple could be so prominent in Personal computers, MP3 players (and some say… invented this category), and now smartphones.

Yes… I’m just plainly calling it a Smartphone now… ok?  It does so many things smartly, the people using it and developing for it are smart, and… I just haven’t needed to open an Excel doc on my phone, or have even used the word "Lotus", since June 29th. Have you?

Apple couldn’t really do things, the way they like to do things, if they poured every available feature into every device as soon as it was marketable. The integrity of the product would be compromised. The original iPod did a couple simple, unique, things… really well. If they had loaded the original iPod with all kinds of bells and whistles… some of which kindof worked, others promising this or that… it wouldn’t have been an iPod as we know it. It would have lost it’s class, been gadgety… it all comes back to user experience. But as experienced users, we always want more and have more ideas.

I sure wish the iPhone did some of the things my N95 can do, but it’s the iPhone in my pocket. This is no small trick. I’ve cruised alot of developer sites… Nokia, Sony, Symbian, Brew… and you can smirk at Safari web apps, but the Apple Web Apps Site is already just… cool. It does a couple simple, unique, things… really well. They’re coming along. They’re just not going to let us run screaming with it…. it’s not their style.