Apple to Developers: Pay us for iPhone apps

[Hurmoth]

Apple to iPhone Developers "Pay as You Go"

Invitations sent to the press last week for an "iPhone software roadmap" special event which takes place on March 6 at Cupertino, California, fueled rumours on what the rules for iPhone and iPod touch developers will be. MacScoop sources not only obtained confirmation on some recent Internet reports but also added a few important details.

Apple to keep a small percentage of the revenue

Apple plans to start a program allowing developers to distribute their iPhone and iPod touch applications through iTunes and although software will be submitted to the store at no cost, Apple will keep a small perentage of the revenue generated by each sale, sources told MacScoop.

Last week, iLounge reported that Apple will allow the distribution of iPhone and iPod touch software only through iTunes and will act as application picker. The same day Electronista posted another report claiming that developers of non commercial applications will be free to make them available without any restriction.

MacScoop could not obtain information regarding the distribution of non commercial software for the iPhone and the iPod touch.

Applications will have access to EDGE and Wifi

Sources confirmed that, though there might be a few limitations for the developers, Apple will not prevent third-party applications from accessing to EDGE and Wifi connectivity.

However, as iLounge claims, Apple will probably not distribute applications which use accessories through this SDK (Software Development Kit).

Mac OS X required

Developers will have to use a Mac with Mac OS X Leopard so as to write applications for Apple's devices. Apple will not release its development kit on other platforms than the Mac.

The development environment is said to actually be an enhanced version of XCode which should be made available for free to all ADC (Apple Developer Connection) members.

Other announcements: First applications, Lotus and Exchange support

Apple has apparently been working with a few developers including IBM as well as game developers such as Electronic Arts and Gameloft so as to bring the first third party applications to the platform and some of them might be announced at the occasion.

In addition we may expect Apple to announce Microsoft Exchange support on the iPhone as rumoured by several analysts and recently confirmed by our own sources.

Stay tuned on Thursday as MacScoop will keep you updated on the event.

[Rudy]

not surprised at all, should be good as long as they allow the price to be set to $0 too

[spacer]

not surprised at all, should be good as long as they allow the price to be set to $0 too

Haha, that would be awesome.

[Menge]

please clarify on the topic that these are just rumors so far. they might not be rumors in a few hours. but so far... rumors.

and i do expect that they will charge to sell apps through the iTunes store.

and i do hope that they'll allow freeware distribution through the iTunes store without charge :)

[ahfunaki]

not surprised at all, should be good as long as they allow the price to be set to $0 too

Haha, that would be awesome.

If they don't do that, I'm pretty sure this whole thing would fail and people would just continue to use the AppTapp Installer...

[Guest]

If they don't do that, I'm pretty sure this whole thing would fail and people would just continue to use the AppTapp Installer...

Not really. Believe it or not, there are people out there who don't continue to jailbreak their iPhone (including myself).

[neufuse Veteran]

Well the fact you cant write apps on anything but a mac they just lost a huge amount of potential devs out there... I for one being one of them... If its a multi platform product (which it is, you can use them in windows too) you should have a sdk that is multi platform also...

[Windam]

Boycott the phone..

[Si Veteran]

In addition we may expect Apple to announce Microsoft Exchange support on the iPhone as rumoured by several analysts and recently confirmed by our own sources.

:woot:

[Hurmoth]

Well the fact you cant write apps on anything but a mac they just lost a huge amount of potential devs out there... I for one being one of them... If its a multi platform product (which it is, you can use them in windows too) you should have a sdk that is multi platform also...

I imagine they'll eventually release a Windows SDK, they'll have to considering how many iPhone owners are probably Windows users.

[hotdog666al]

Meh. Jailbreak ftw.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

A SDK for Windows would be nice, But the device does run a mobile form of OS X, And Apple haven't really provided OS X development tools for Windows.

[Beastage]

Boycott the phone..

Boycott Apple!

I'm seriously surprised here.... these people who Apple keep abusing lately should be the first to sound their disapproval from whats becoming a sickenly greedy trend from Apple.

I'm still surprised that all those apple related websites didn't openly revolt because Apple closed macrumors.

Since when all of them became such bad consumers?

[ShaneSparky_YYZ]

Meh. Jailbreak ftw.

+1

[Robgig1088]

If they don't allow the price to be set to $0, couldn't someone write a program with "plugins" that are actually other programs, so that only one program need be purchased (sort of like a wrapper class)? Hmm.. Seems like they would almost have to let devs charge $0.

[Hurmoth]

I'm still surprised that all those apple related websites didn't openly revolt because Apple closed macrumors.

Apple didn't close MacRumors it is still working. They sued ThinkSecret and Nick dePlume willingly closed it, probably for a large amount of money. Essentially Apple bought the site and closed it.

[Elliott]

I'm hoping some of these rumors aren't true. There seem to be too many of them to be real.

[Wannes]

:woot:

The Microsoft Exchange would be a great new feature.

Concerning the article, as long as they will not make the iPhone available in Belgium and/or Holland I will be jailbreaking. I still find it unacceptable that only a few countries get the iPhone the 'legal' way. But hey, who am I? I'm just one of the many customers.

[Southern Patriot]

Well the fact you cant write apps on anything but a mac they just lost a huge amount of potential devs out there... I for one being one of them... If its a multi platform product (which it is, you can use them in windows too) you should have a sdk that is multi platform also...

Considering that the iPhone (and iPod Touch) run versions of OS X, it makes sense for the development tools to run on OS X as well. How many Windows developers have experience with developing OS X software? Does Microsoft make development tools for Windows Mobile available to OS X or Linux based developers? Nope, didn't think so.

[neufuse Veteran]

Considering that the iPhone (and iPod Touch) run versions of OS X, it makes sense for the development tools to run on OS X as well. How many Windows developers have experience with developing OS X software? Does Microsoft make development tools for Windows Mobile available to OS X or Linux based developers? Nope, didn't think so.

Microsoft also doesn't make devices that run on windows / mac that are programmable either... kinda makes it hard to say that about MS then

[rajputwarrior]

Meh. Jailbreak ftw.

+2

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Microsoft also doesn't make devices that run on windows / mac that are programmable either... kinda makes it hard to say that about MS then

Windows Mobile runs the .NET framework.

Their dev tools are Windows only.

Edit: Windows CE too.

[Xero]

I'll likely still jailbreak mine instead of using Apples way. Regardless if an application is free, I don't see apps like Summerboard or Customize which allow you to directly modify key aspects of it, ever getting past Apple.

Some might, but the real good ones will likely be blackballed.

[FloatingFatMan]

Windows Mobile runs the .NET framework.

Their dev tools are Windows only.

Edit: Windows CE too.

There are .NET development environment available for Linux and OSX too, just not from Microsoft. You only need Windows if you want to run one of the device emulation platforms to test your code.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Yeah (Mono and such), But they aren't from MS (which was the main point)