The state of the union for iPhone apps

If Apple meets its self-imposed deadline, we can expect the release of an iPhone Software Development Kit by week's end. The release of that SDK is probably one of the most anticipated iPhone-related events since last June's launch of the phone itself, and it's easy to understand why: the SDK will officially open up the iPhone to third-party application development.

"Officially" is the key word in that sentence. Because, as we've documented here before, the iPhone has been unofficially able to run third party apps since roughly one month after launch. It was shortly after that, in fact, that my iPhone left its factory stock state, never to return. I decided last fall that, rather than lose out on all the great third-party apps I had found when installing iPhone updates, I would hold off on upgrading my iPhone software for as long as I could.

Now, nearly six months after I wrote that linked article, my iPhone does everything--and more--than my Palm Treo ever did, and it's become my perfect portable computing device. In fact, there are times I literally forget it's also a telephone and an iPod, as it handles its role as my ultra portable technology tool so well. I thought it might be interesting, then, to take a quick look at the state of third-party applications on the iPhone on the eve of the release of Apple's official SDK.

Much has changed in the world of iPhone modifications in the last seven months. What started as something that required a high level of technical knowledge has become amazingly simple to do with the 1.1.3 version of the iPhone software. As before, I held off on upgrading my iPhone until third party application support was back--and until at least a few friends had tried the process for themselves and proven it works. The good news is that enabling third-party application support on the iPhone is now quite simple (though there are some complications based on which version of the iPhone you have).

I'm not going to go into great detail here, but the basic process is to let iTunes back up your iPhone, tell iTunes to "restore" it to the new 1.1.3 firmware, and then use ZiPhone to enable third-party application support. The process takes a few minutes and a few button clicks. There were a couple minor issues with two third-party apps (Apollo, a chat app, and Term-vt100, a Terminal app), but the fixes were easily found (Apollo; Term-vt100).

And now, the standard disclaimer any time we talk about modifying your iPhone in this manner: Enabling third-party application support on your iPhone may void your warranty, expose you to security holes, allow malicious software to be easily installed on your iPhone, and potentially cause your hair to fall out. Proceed at your own risk.

After restoring my iPhone's contacts, movies, music, and e-mail, I set about the task of repopulating my collection of third-party applications. It was during this process that I realized the pending release of the official Apple SDK isn't nearly as exciting to me as it once was--in the short term at least. Yes, it's very important to the long-term future of the iPhone, and I think it's going to push this platform in ways that even Apple hasn't considered. And I think we're going to see some truly amazing native iPhone applications as a result of the SDK.

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