iPhone SDK Reactions and Ongoing Questions

The release of the iPhone SDK provided a lot of answers, but has also raised a number of questions, many of which will not be answerable until the iTunes App Store launches in June 2008.

The general sentiment, however, has been quite positive with most expectations being exceeded. The addition of numerous enterprise features has removed many hurdles for corporate iPhone adoption, though it may still be an uphill battle against RIM which many businesses have already heavily invested in both servers and training.

The significance of a native iPhone version of Epocrates for health care professionals can not be overstated. In my experience, it alone has been significant driver in Palm sales amongst physicians, and its absence on the iPhone has been a significant hurdle for physician adoption of Apple's phone.

Developer reaction has also been generally positive. Despite lengthy MacRumors reader debates about the 70%/30% fee structure of the iTunes App Store, public developer response has been generally accepting. A notable comment by id Software's John Carmack suggests that the "iTunes distribution channel is really a more important aspect than a lot of people understand".

As expected, Apple is exerting editorial control on applications that appear on the iTunes App Store. Explicit restrictions are quite reasonable with limitations on illegal, abusive and offensive applications. Some are concerned, however, that Apple may have other restrictions that are not as clear-cut. Still, that hasn't prevented some from predicting that this marks the beginning of an enormous opportunity for Apple with the belief that "what Microsoft and Windows was to the desktop, Apple and Touch will be to mobile."