iPhone SDK release rumors: don’t panic
John Gruber writes about the iLounge article about the rumors about the upcoming iPhone SDK release.He makes it sound as if the only way to get an application is from the iTunes Store which Apple will be the gatekeeper of.
Here is why he is wrong: developers will need a way to get an application onto the iPhone before it has been released for sale. There will have to be a way to get incomplete applications onto the iPhone before their release to the iTunes Store. I haven’t seen anything in the rumors that say a developer or user can’t simply drag the application into iTunes like any music file for loading into the iPhone.
Tiered SDKs? Sure. Apple’s approval required for selling apps in the iTunes Store? Sure. Not being able to write and test a deployment of an app to the iPhone before getting Apple’s approval? So impractical, I don’t see how it would be workable for any developer at all. And if a developer can deploy an app, I don’t see any reason a user couldn’t use the same mechanism.