Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of worldwide marketing for the iPod, has confirmed that while the manufacturer is encouraging third parties to design peripherals for the iPhone, as has happened with the iPod, “there will be no possibility that any third party can develop software “. As he told Macworld: “At the moment the opportunities are limited to the accessories market.”
At the end of the month Apple will publish the reference book for developers who want to design these products. Joswiak has emphasized how delicate it can be to develop products for the iPhone. “There may be noise radiated or conducted by the phone and if you have not screened your product properly then the speakers will be affected,” explains Joswiak.
“We will provide technical information to our developers at the end of the month that will reflect those additional requirements. We will work with our developers to ensure that the products are properly screened.”
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This does not mean that companies are exempt from approaching Apple with ideas for iPhone applications. Joswiak has emphasized that Apple is already working with Google and Yahoo on such applications, although essentially Apple will always publish the software.
Joswiak has also stressed that Apple will not phase out any future iPhone software development; on the contrary, the design of the iPhone opens up many options for development possibilities. “We will be able to do anything that we propose since the iPhone is not limited by a set of keys that may make sense for some applications but not for the rest,” he declares echoing Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who also criticized the design of current smartphones by including the keys embedded in the plastic so that they often did not correspond to the application executed at all times. Joswiak added that Apple has the infrastructure to ship updated applications and updates for those applications.
One application that can be in view is a task organizer. Joswiak commented: “We have not announced a task organizer yet.” To compete in the smartphone segment, Apple should offer some Office-style applications. There have been some suggestions that the future update of iWorks, the great absent from the last presentation, could also be available for the iPhone.
