“While third party software development offers all kinds of tantalizing potential for the new mobile, there are a half dozen reasons why Apple may not ever deliver the iPhone fully open to third party development, following the model of gaming consoles,” Daniel Eran Dilger writes for RoughlyDrafted.
“Will Apple give third party developers the keys to its new vehicle and allow them to drive off with the value it has created? It hasn’t yet, and there are a number of reasons to think that Apple won’t,” Dilger writes.
Among other things, Dilger covers:
• Web apps via Safari offers a good enough alternative to serve more than 80% of most developers’ needs
• Possible Apple-certified third-party online software sales via iTunes (see: iPod games)
• Apple may be able to establish a viable mobile platform without needing to fully open it to third party development
• Depending upon large third party developers can cause grief (see: Microsoft Office for Mac)
• Open Application Programming Interfaces involve complex management and maintenance and can create legacy issues (see: WIndows)
• A closed hardware platform offers Apple extreme flexibility for the future (see: iPod)
Dilger discusses “Six Reasons the iPhone Will Stay Closed” and much more in his full article here.