iPhone Will Not Have Open API

In Steve Job’s keynote, he emphasized that the iPhone is “5 years ahead” of any mobile device. This is of course just a bit of marketing bullshit unless Apple does one thing, which is to have an open API for 3rd party development. If they did that for iPhone, the combination of the hardware plus 3rd party software would be years ahead of anything Google+HTC could throw together. If they made Dashboard Widgets the foundation for that open API and provided access to the hardware then the device would be at least 5 years ahead.

From the demo, it appears that iPhone can run apps that look like Dashboard Widgets. Hopefully this means that those widgets are written in HTML, CSS, and Javascript. If that is true, then we would have a flexible platform where nearly anyone could create apps for the iPhone.

Unfortunately, today, Gizmodo has scooped that the iPhone will be a closed system. If the rumors about HTC+Google are true, I believe they will make the system open for developers. Unfortunately, I don’t believe we’ll get a device that’s as fetching as an iPhone from HTC.