“Suddenly, Apple’s apparent downer on third-party iPhone software development becomes much clearer. Taiwanese moles claim the company is considering founding future iPhones on the next generation of Intel’s Ultra Mobile Platform,” Tony Smith reports for The Register.
“Today’s iPhones are based on ARM processor technology. Intel abandoned its ARM chip line in practice last year, but focused its efforts on its own x86 processor platform in spirit back in 2005. Since the two are incompatible, moving to x86-based iPhones would by necessity render all existing iPhone apps unusable on the new platform,” Smith reports.
Full article here.
“Apple reportedly is considering adopting Intel’s Moorestown MID (mobile Internet device) platform processor in a new iPhone, according to OEM sources,”Monica Chen and Joseph Tsai report for DigiTimes.
“Intel revealed a Moorestown-based MID product with functions similar to Apple’s iPhone at the recent Intel Developer Forum (IDF) San Francisco,” Chen and Tsai report. “The Moorestown platform is expected to launch in 2009 and Apple is considering developing an iPhone based on it…”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Another Irish Dude” and “RadDoc” for the heads up.]
Unlikely. If its not coming until 2009, that would give people a year at least to use 3rd party apps.
one can ony hope… smaller, faster, more power, less heat. nice
Doubt it. That makes as much sense as stopping development of PPC applications because a new Intel processor is coming.
Sadly, it is probably an AT&T;thing. Hopefully all those developers out there will hack the latest firmware so I can play Tap-Tap Revolution again…..
Think this makes sense to me. I’ve always felt that Apple was waiting to make sure it had the iPhone where they wanted it before opening it up. It is still incredibly young for such a futuristic device! And I also believe that Apple learned their lessons from the past.
PS – I still remember all the Apple fans screaming bloody murder when Apple decided to market the iPod to PC users.
I do not think Apple would delay 3rd parties that long.
again, what a joke for a smartphone with no 3rd party apps
This is no help to current and near future iPhone owners. Frankly this is a stupid speculation, MDN. I guess this must be a slow news day for you.
Not a smartphone, sir. Not a mention of smartphone from Apple on their iphone website…
People are pissed that they have re-buy a $5 game for a new iPod Classic. Imagine how pissed people would be if they had to re-buy a $10, $20 or $50 application because of a processor switch.
This isn’t the same as stopping PPC development. There is no ARM development to stop since it’s never officially started. Mobile environments are also very resource constrained and supporting dual processor development is resource intensive. People are already complaining about the lack of usuable storage space on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Performance would also be decreased since the applications wouldn’t be optimized for the respective processor.
Didn’t stop them with the iPod generation 5 games.
Umm yea I don’t believe this for a second. I mean we have Universal Binaries for apps why not for the iPhone.
@jowo
Simple! Buy a smartphone with 3rd party apps.
You obviously eliminated the iPhone from your decision-making.
eWeek is reporting that all iPhone apps run as root. (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2191373,00.asp).
If true, opening to third party apps would be a security nightmare.
My thought is that in order to get the iPhone out, Apple cut some corners — The major one being running every app as root.
Once Leopard is out the door, the effort will be to re-write iPhone on Leopard and do it right this time, with proper security (no root access). Once that update to iPhone ships, Apple can open up the platform for third party apps. Then we will have a true mobile computing platform.
hardly…Apple can easily take care of this transition using their Universal Binary architecture
Just wanted to say that it’s a HILARIOUS ad right next to the comment field: Looking like an error message straight from Win98 with the white x in a red circle and these old-fashioned buttons. It’s just not Win98 at all that its moving all the time.
Bring back those days, yeah!
“Once Leopard is out the door, the effort will be to re-write iPhone on Leopard and do it right this time, with proper security (no root access). Once that update to iPhone ships, Apple can open up the platform for third party apps. Then we will have a true mobile computing platform.”
Man, that would be great.
Wouldn’t Apple just create a transition process like the PPC to Intel (i.e. universal binaries, classic environment, etc)? I think Apple is locking down the iPhone for 2 reasons: 1. The AT&T;agreement. 2. Usability for the 90% that don’t customize their phones.
I owned a WM5 phone before the iPhone and I can’t tell you how many 3rd party apps I installed that caused nothing but issues and made me to reinitialize the phone.
@kirkgray
I thought the iPhone is running Leopard. But in the end, It really doesn’t make a damn difference, now does it?
Does anyone know whether Windows Mobile and Symbian OS run at the root level of a cellphone as well, or, if not, what kind of user account structure they have?
I agree with kirkgray in that there is probably a very good reason why Apple has so far discouraged 3rd party apps. The e-week explanation is as good as any. I cannot believe that Jobs and company believe that the iPhone can have legs in the Smartphone category (which it has the opportunity to dominate) without an SDK and a robust 3rd party developer base. Although it is possible that we v1 iPhone owners may ultimately find ourselves out of luck if the changes require different hardware. That would be a bummer.
Anyone else seeing the “Slap the Belly” below the feedback entry portion of this page? Looks more like “Slap the Breast”. Weird.
Apple cannot open up the iphone for 3rd party application until their contract with ATT runs out. That’s the real deal.
Why do you think iChat is not on there? Till the contract runs out or a specific period stated in the contract, before 3rd party apps are allowed.
A planned chip switch is no reason to hold back 3rd-party apps.
Imagine all the 1st-gen iPhone users as they see the new and improved iPhone with all it’s 3rd-party apps. They’ll just have to run out and buy a new iPhone, because Apple wouldn’t allow any apps to run on the phone they paid for.
Planned obsolescence? Is that really what Apple is doing?
kirkgray’s scenario is much more likely.
Apple are control freaks, this why no 3rd party apps, plain and simple.
After a little investigation on Google, it seems that all three of the major cellphone OSs (Apple, Symbian, and Windows Mobile) have the same security problem. Most of the APIs are not protected from hacking, which means that all three are “running at root level” for most of their processes. The differences among them seem to be the degree to which “signed certificates” are required to gain access to sensitive APIs. Only the smartphone version of WM5 and some versions of Symbian OS have extensive use of certification. The stronger the level of certification required, the less access third-party software developers have to the phone.
Can anybody expand on or correct this?