UPDATE - The video of the presentation has been posted by Apple. Click here to see it.
After much anticipation by the development community, Apple has finally revealed its plans on how they’re going to promote the design of applications within their successful mobile devices. Some were pleased at what was outlined, but certainly others were disappointed with the limitations Apple imposed. Here’s a general overlook of the strongest points covered today.
The SDK. It will be a free download, now available via Apple’s website, but will require an Intel Mac running Leopard. Within the SDK, you’ll have access to anything you may need to make an application work within Apple’s devices, as well as a simulator to test the apps within the Mac. Some impressive demos were already shown — more on that below.
The App Store. Apple will be releasing a new application in the 2.0 update (scheduled for a June release) for accessing the app store. While the SDK may be free, Apple will charge $99 for publishing your apps, and keep a 30% of profits for the maintenance of the store. Also, developers will be required to do as requested with an electronic certificate in order to protect the platform of malware. And, of course, there will be no apps of some kind allowed, such as SIM unlockers and ones that display pornographic content. But, apparently, free software will remain free all the way.
Game demos. The iPhone and iPod touch apparently make great gaming platforms, as EA demoed a mobile version of their upcoming PC/Mac game, Spore. Just as well, another demo that stole the show was Sega’s adaptation of their successful series, Super Monkey Ball. A lot of emphasis was placed under the achievement of coding these demos in just two weeks.
AIM. The first official IM client was demoed, also.
If you want to read a more in-depth transcript of what happened at the press conference, Engadget’s live blogging session is a great place to start. Now the question is, are you interested in developing apps for the iPhone and iPod touch?
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