“Apple’s iPhone scored another round of praise and publicity after unveiling a program that will let other companies create applications for the popular device,” Anthony Bruno reports for Billboard. “But the excitement didn’t make its way to the mobile music market. Although those hoping to add mobile games, corporate e-mail accounts and other content to their iPhone are thrilled, music services see little opportunity to use the groundbreaking device as a means of advancing the enjoyment or acquisition of music from mobile phones.”
“The background: Apple released a beta software development kit (SDK) that gives programmers various tools to develop applications that not only run on the iPhone and iPod Touch, but also take advantage of several key capabilities — such as the touch-screen and motion sensor,” Bruno reports. “‘It’s an open question at this point how amenable Apple will be to offering products or applications that could conceivably interfere with its own iTunes revenue stream,’ NPD Group’s Ross Rubin says.”
“An iPhone version of Rhapsody or Napster is almost certainly out of the question, as both require software and digital rights management not compatible with Apple products. In more of a gray area are online streaming services like Last.fm, Pandora and imeem. None has downloading capabilities outside of linking to such third-party services as iTunes, and as such Apple may see them as services that drive sales rather than cannibalize them,” Bruno reports.
“‘The real interesting test case will be Amazon,’ Rubin says. ‘Here’s a music vendor selling songs that are clearly compatible with the iPhone. Unlike with Rhapsody or Napster, there’s no DRM you need to make work,'” Bruno reports. “The same goes for eMusic. But both are considered iTunes challengers, and Apple could easily decline to make their applications available in the AppStore.”
“Also discouraging is that, at least in the beta version of the SDK, developers won’t have access to any iTunes functionality. This severely restricts the ability for such iTunes plug-in applications as iLike, Last.fm, Qloud or OnTour to create iPhone-compatible widgets that might expand basic iTunes functions,” Bruno reports. “But they can still write Web applications that users can access through iPhone’s Safari browser, which does not require Apple’s SDK or approval.”
More in the full article here.
[Attribution: MacNN. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]
I’ve been working with C1 to see if there’s a glitch in Apple’s store. I was able to download the sdk free. It is supposed to cost $99, am I right?
Why would Apple pee on their own shoes?
@Jim – TIV. NO.
Ron… does it cost anything? or have I just been living on another planet the last couple of weeks? lol.
Yes it has always been free
Who wants to saw the branch… ?
Downloading and using the SDK is free. Becoming an Apple-authorized reseller with wares in the iTunes App Store requires a $99 registration fee.
So basically, they will let you try it before you buy it.
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JimTV – it’s free for anyone with an Apple ID to download. But if you want to “publish” your new application, you need to pay the $99.
Why is that wrong. Apple should block access to that. If they want functionality, then ask permission and partner with Apple. Otherwise get over it.
@ coolfactor
AH! That’s it.
@ The original article
Well DUH. I thought that would be kind of obvious since Apple won’t license other DRM formats for iTunes.
Music from Amazon or emusic is fully compatible iTunes–they don’t have apps of their own per se. What’s the issue here?
No issue, Steve knows what’s best for us.
I was so looking forward to using rhapsody on my iPhone! I’m crushed.
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This is a stupid article. Amazon or anybody else can write their own music app for iPhone if they want to. I didn’t read anything in the SDK contact that prohibits that. The only thing that they can’t do is integrate with iTunes. But so what?
I’m patiently waiting for the day when Steve & Jeff Bezos take the stage together and announce the ability to purchase Amazon songs from within iTunes.
That’s the day when music execs discover the legendary “brown note” and crap their pants! 😀
I also understand that Apple will not be selling iPhones with a Zune superglued to them.
@ DRM sucks
SERIOUSLY? Aw, man. What the hell am I gonna get my dad for father’s day now?
If you make a new app for the iPhone, do you have to distribute via Apple? Although distributing via Apple gives you nice exposure; could you not just as well setup your own distribution or does Apple not allow this?
Can anyone please clarify?
While there might be a conspiracy in Apple not allowing developer access to the itunes and dock portion of the code base, I think there might be another explanation.
When any SDK is created it contains code that can be called by developers. Apple is guaranteeing that these routines will remain in existence and hopefully bug-free through iPhone/iTouch system revisions so developer code is guaranteed to work. There may be other routines that they know will (or may) change over time. If a developer use these other routines, their app may break over time. As the OS matures, Apple may deem some of these other routines as normal callable routines.
I think from the presentation that the iTunes routines are in the kernel of the OS – this way you can still listen to songs while surfing the web (i.e. not single-tasking). It may be hard then to allow developers to manage songs while iTunes is still playing them.
Regarding Amazon, they may be able to pay for, download and play an MP3, but not add it to the iTunes library on the fly. There is nothing but marketing stopping Real and Microsoft writing their DRM-apps to allow the playing of songs on an iPhone/iTouch.
While developers cannot touch the songs on the players, they still have access to the players’ speakers since even games can play sounds through the speakers.
@HolyMackerel
You’re right. Amazon requires installation of a tiny program that adds songs to iTunes after they’re purchased. I’ve purchased music from Amazon from time to time. It works flawlessly. Don’t think it’ll work on the iPhone since the full iTunes software resides on the computer, and not the iPhone…
” was able to download the sdk free. It is supposed to cost $99, am I right?”
Actually, Steve Jobs comes to your house in the middle of the night with a couple of goons and “collects” his due “otomatically” if you haven’t paid.
This is the dumbest article. (Well except for the Icarus article.) Amazon’s tunes are all DRM-free. Therefore, you just drop them into iTunes after you’ve downloaded them and, voila, they will appear on your iPhone. That is, unless you don’t know how to sync your iPhone and your computer.
Umm, why would Apple allow folks to circumvent the already built in iTunes access on the iPhone/iTouch that was added with an earlier update? Music, videos, etc, available for download at a reasonable price, that can then be transfered back to your computer.
And, while we are at it… THIS IS A BETA RELEASE folks… Everyone gets all wound up for A BETA RELEASE and starts huffing and puffing like mad, and forgets that this is still just a BETA RELEASE.
I think Apple should be congratulated for having the BALLS to open this can of worms in the first place. Most other companies (like, umm, dunno… Microshit) say to their customers “here is the product. If you don’t like it, well, TOUGH.”
As it should be – the music should be kept locked