InfoWorld columnist on iPhone open development

By Erica Sadun

Will the iPhone support third party application development? Tom Yager of InfoWorld writes that it needs to, because "Open is just how phones are done, and not just smart phones." Yager talks about BlackBerry's Java support, Nokia's Symbian support and Windows Mobile, contrasting these to Apple's as-of-now closed platform.

At this time, both the iPod and Apple TV have been opened to illicit third party development without Apple's cooperation. Of the two, development for the iPod has been far harder; just a few third-party items are available. Apple TV, in contrast, is essentially a slimmed-down Mac Mini running a compact version of OS X, which is more or less what we expect the iPhone to be. Porting software to Apple TV has been extremely easy.

Yes, the iPod also has official third party software in its games offerings, but how long can this "fully blessed" approach go on? Does Apple need to continue controlling the content that will eventually run on the iPhones? Or will the iPhone open up beyond the "prison farm" to allow widescale third-party development?

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