Archive notice: This article was originally published on June 9, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Apple also announced that the new App Store, which lets developers deliver applications wirelessly to iPhone and iPod touch users worldwide, will be available in 62 countries. Applications can be downloaded wirelessly and used immediately.
“The response to the breadth, performance and simplicity of the iPhone SDK has been incredible,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Product Marketing. “We are seeing some truly fantastic native applications from our developers and believe users will love the breadth and depth of applications available from the App Store.”
Leading developers including AOL, Cisco, eBay, Electronic Arts, Epocrates, TypePad, Salesforce.com and Sega demonstrated native applications created with the iPhone SDK.
AOL Executive Vice President Kevin Conroy said the SDK enabled the company to build a groundbreaking AIM client in record time and inspired new web- and SDK-based experiences for iPhone and iPod touch.
Fox Interactive Media’s John Smelzer said the SDK supplied tools and APIs for mobile extensions across brands including MySpace, IGN and Photobucket, with more such as FOXSports.com planned.
YELLOWPAGES.COM President David Krantz praised Cocoa Touch as a compact, robust environment that handles the heavy lifting and allows developers to focus on creating applications quickly with Apple’s expected polish.
Jonathan Backer of The Walt Disney Company said that after working with hundreds of mobile devices, developing for iPhone was easy because the hardware was capable and the software tools intuitive.
Adam Ritter of Major League Baseball Advanced Media said rising traffic to MLB.com’s mobile site made an App Store client logical, and that the robust, straightforward SDK accelerated development of an application for baseball fans.
Pricing and availability
The iPhone SDK beta is available at http://www.developer.apple.com/iphone/program. Membership in the iPhone Developer Program is available worldwide. Developers set their own application prices, including free offerings, and receive 70 percent of revenue.
