As per the other two comments, I'd agree that Jobs never precluded third party apps, and early interviews implied some sort of SDK would be available.

On the other hand, announcing the Web 2.0 solution at a Cocoa developers conference was a BAD PR move, as it implied that this was Apple's solution - even if there was no official line towards a proper SDK either way. Apple's PR did nothing to clarify the situation, even while it was generating negative press.

IMO - this has more to do with Apple's default secrecy than anything else - i.e. they don't announce vapourware, and without a target date, I can imagine Jobs not wanting to commit to delivering an SDK. Although it would have been possible to have 'leaked' the information (and indeed some people did report it).

I don't believe they've responded to public pressure in opening the device - just in pre-announcing the SDK. I also think the next storm will be when people realise that it's an SDK for commercial developers, rather than hackers.

And I think a lot of people giving Apple grief don't appreciate the gap between developing a device, and developing a platform - my experience of the iPod touch, and reading reports of issues with the iPhone, suggest there are still a few bugs to be worked out with Apple's software alone (rogue processes capable of draining the battery in hours). Being realistic, they need to address those bugs first before letting people build on top - and being realistic, no matter how much testing you do, it's only wide real world use that finds those edge case bugs.

It's good news nonetheless - I look forward to a third party app to use my iPod as a WiFi remote control for instance. And games!

Did you do any research at all before writing this story. Job's has stated at least three time after the into of the iPhone that it was Apples intention to have 3rd party development but not until they work out a method of doing it and still have a secure phone.

There is considerable confusion on this score. Steve Jobs never precluded a SDK on the iPhone,when he introduced the web based AJAX apps. The The Hackers just assumed that. There are reasons for why Apple had to wait. As Steve said in the recent memo that the security needs to be improved. The other point is that the iPhone is a Leopard 10.5 devise. Steve had to wait for that software to be released.